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4 





V<7^r0^e A 



THE 



LIFE AND TIMES 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



BY 



SAMUEL M. SMUCKER, A.M., 

AUTHOR OF "the EMPEROR NICHOLAS I.," "CATHERINE II. OP RUSSIA," 

"life and TIMES OP ALEXANDER HAMILTON," "ARCTIC 

EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES," ETC. 




PHILADELPHIA : 
J. W. BRADLEY, 48 N. FOURTH STREET. 

1851. 



r V ^; 
t) \J o 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

J. W. BEAD LEY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

BTEREOTTPED BY OEORQE CHARLE3. 

PRINTED BY KINO & BAIRD. 



*7 U^ 



PREFACE. 



Thomas Jefferson was one of the great repre- 
sentative heroes of the age in which he lived. He 
will always remain a very prominent and remarka- 
ble character in American history. Several biogra- 
phies of him have already appeared ; but they have 
not satisfied the wants of the reading public on the 
subject. They have all been partisan works, filled 
either with indiscriminate praise, or with wholesale 
censure. Thus the largest and most valuable of 
these productions, that written by Professor Tucker, 
is a glowing eulogy from beginning to end. Books 
of this description fail to present a correct and faith- 
ful historical picture of the subjects of which they 
treat. 

I have endeavored in the following pages to 
throw as much light as possible upon the career 
and character of Mr. Jefierson ; and to aid in ac- 



IV PREFACE. 

complishing this end, have quoted large!}' from his 
own writings, from his Anas, his Memoirs, and his 
Correspondence. It is true that these are repre- 
sented bj his opponents as containing many partial 
and discolored statements; but this objection will 
not apply to any of the quotations made in the 
present work. 

This book is neither a eulogy nor a tirade of 
censure. It has been the aim of the writer to pre- 
sent both the merits and the defects of Mr. Jeffer- 
son in their true light. The chief fault of this illus- 
trious man was a pusillanimous and morbid terror 
of popular censure, and an insatiable thirsting after 
popular praise. He indeed saw very clearly, what 
every man of intelligence and observation must 
perceive, that a large proportion of mankind are in 
reality knaves and hypocrites ; that vanity, selfish- 
ness, and perfidy, in various forms and under innu- 
merable disguises, have always been the predomi- 
nating qualities of human nature in every land and 
age ; that even the divine principles and institutions 
of religion have been so perverted and distorted by 
human passions as to have become, in many in- 
stances, only the convenient tools for the aggrau- 



PREFACE. V 

dizement of a more sanctimonious and aspiring 
form of selfishness ; that were it not for a desire to 
preserve the "dignity of vice," resulting from the 
innate pride of human nature, even the empty- 
boast of seeming virtue would rarely be heard, and 
the reality of it would scarcely ever be seen, on the 
face of the earth ; in a word, that while the intel- 
lectual attributes of mankind assimilate them in 
many instances with angels, their propensities and 
their passions, in the majority of cases, leave an 
almost imperceptible interval between themselves 
and the brute creation. 

Mr. Jefferson clearly perceived all this, and in his 
confidential letters to his most intimate friends — 
one of which I have inserted in this work — he has 
given utterance to his convictions on the subject. 
And yet he has made himself justly liable to the 
charge of insincerity and inconsistency by publicly 
proclaiming, during his whole lifetime, different 
and opposite sentiments ; by upholding the dignity, 
grandeur, and majesty of human nature ; by assert- 
ing the immaculate virtue of the multitude ; by 
defending the infallibility of their judgments and 

the perfection of their decrees ; and by making 
1* 



Vl/ PREFACE. 

himself tlie great apostle and champion of those 
popular prerogatives which, in his inmost soul, he 
held in unutterable contempt. 

After having set forth this defect in the character 
of Mr. Jefierson, together with the related weak- 
nesses which naturally flowed from it, the residue 
of the description of him should be commendation 
of no ordinary character; it should be that rare 
praise which belongs to great talents devoted to the 
accomplishment of momentous results, and that 
too in the midst of imminent perils ; persisted in 
through many long, vexatious years; opposed by 
tremendous obstacles ; yet crowned at last with 
complete and overwhelming success. 

Samuel M. Smucker. 

Philadelphia, June, 1857. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Birth of Thomas Jefferson — His Ancestors — Peter Jefferson 
— Thomas Jefferson becomes a Pupil of Maury — He enters 
Wilham and Mary College — His Habits and Peculiarities 
— Dr. William Small — Jefferson's Attachment to Miss Bur- 
well — His Letters — Governor Fauquier — Eloquence of 
Patrick Henry — Jefferson's Journey to Philadelphia and 
New York' — His Admission to the Bar — His Qualities as 
a Lawyer — Is Elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses 
— His Activity and Influence in that Body. 15 

CHAPTER II. 

Burning of Jefferson's Residence — His Marriage — Events of 
1773 — Proceedings in Rhode Island — Measures of the 
Virginia House of Burgesses — Committees of Correspond- 
ence — British Aggressions — Steps of Resistance taken in 
Virginia — Activity of Mr. Jefferson — The Convention — 
Resolutions adopted by that Body — The " Summary View 
of the Rights of British America" — Delegates to the first 
Continental Congress — Jefferson's Resolutions in the Vir- 
ginia Legislature- — His Answer to Lord North's Proposi- 
tion 41 

CHAPTER HI. 

Mr. Jefferson Elected a Member of Congress — His Appoint- 
ment on important Committees — His Reports — Mr. Dick- 
inson of Pennsylvania — Mr. Jefferson prepares a Consti- ^ 
tution and Declaration of Rights for Virginia — The Legis- 

(vii) 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAOE 

lature of Virginia recommends a Declaration of Independ- 
ence — Mr. Jeflferson's Influence in Congress — Resolution 
of Richard Henry Lee — Mr. Jefferson Drafts the Original 
Declaration of Independence — State of Parties in Congress 
— Adoption and Promulgation of the Declaration — Ex- 
citement throughout the Colonies on the Subject — Literary 
Merits of the Declaration — Its Historic Influence and Im- 
portance — Mr. Jefferson's opinion respecting it — Its Fu- 
ture Influence 59 

CHAPTER IV. 

Mr. Jefferson declines a re-election to Congress — Results of 
his Labors in Congress — Appointed Commissioner to 
France — He declines — He takes his seat in the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia — He proposes a Law for the Reoi-ganiza- 
tion of the Courts of Justice — He proposes a Law for the 
Abolition of Entails — He proposes a Bill to overthrow the 
Established Church in Virginia — Fierce Conflicts which 
Ensued — The final Result — Jefferson's ultimate Triumph 
— Establishment of absolute Religious Freedom in Vir- 
ginia — Mr. Jefferson obtains the passage of a Law abolish- 
ing the Foreign Slave Trade in Virginia — History of that 
Reform in foreign countries 75 

CHAPTER V. 
Proposition to Codify the Laws of Virginia — A Committee 
appointed for the Purpose — Mr. Jefferson's portion of the 
Task — Changes in the Law of Descents — Changes in the 
Criminal Law — Meeting of the Committee — Their Report 
to the Legislature — Leading Reforms introduced by Mr. 
Jefferson into the Code — Religious Freedom — Abolition of 
Slavery — General System of Education — The Captive 
Army of Burgoyne quartered at Charlottesville — Popular 
Excitement — Useful and benevolent activity of Jefferson 
in reference to the Captives 89 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Jefferson elected Governor of Virginia — His Measures 
of Retaliation upon the British — Arrest of Henry Ilamil- 



CONTENTS. ix 

PAOB 

ton — Washington Approves of Jefferson's Measures — 
Tarle ton's Invasion of Virginia — Jefferson's Activity — His 
Letter to Washington — Attack of the British on Richmond 
— Schemes to capture Arnold — Their Failure — Attempt 
of the British to take Jefferson at Monticello — His Escape 
— Efforts made to Impeach Jefferson in the Legislature — 
Their Defeat — Jefferson's Defense of his Official Acts. . . . 103 

CHAPTER VII. 
Mr. Jefferson chosen a Plenipotentiary to England — Death 
of Mrs. Jefferson — Mission to England abandoned — Mr. 
Jefferson elected a Delegate to Congress — Improvements 
in the Currency — Washington resigns his Commission to 
Congress at Annapolis — The Deiinitive Treaty vcith Eng- 
land — Anti-Slavery Ordinances proposed by Mr. Jefferson 
in Congress in 1784 — He is appointed Plenipotentiary to 
France — Conferences with the French Ministry — Attempt 
to negotiate a Commercial Treaty with Great Britain. . . . 120 

CHAPTER VIIL 
The Convention at Annapolis — Summoning of the Federal 
Convention — Adoption of the New Constitution — Origin 
and State of Political Parties in the United States — Jeffer- 
son's Opinions in reference to the Federal Constitution — 
HisLettersonthe Subject — Opposing Opinions of Washing- 
ton — Vox Populi, Vox Dei — Jefferson's Travels in Europe 
— His Diplomatic Labors — Events of the French Revolu- 
tion — Jefferson's Opinions in reference to those Events.. 147 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Convocation of the States-General of France — Jeffer- 
son's Description of French Parties — Jefferson's Plan for 
the Settlement of the Kingdom — His Return to the United 
States — His Reception at Monticello — He is invited by 
Washington to become Secretary of State — He Accepts 
the Offer — His Views on the question of Public Credit — 
His Reports on the Coinage, Weights, and Measures — Hia 
Letter to the National Assembly of France on the Death 
of Franklin — His Views on the United States Bank 166 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

Disputes in the Cabinet of Washington — Jefferson's State- 
ment of Hamilton's Views — Hamilton's Superiority — Mr. 
Jefferson's purpose of Retiring — Giles' Resolutions — Jef- 
ferson's Vindication of Himself — His profound and able 
Opinion in reference to the War with France — Conduct 
of Genet, the French Minister — The Little Democrat — 
Genet's Recall — Jefferson's description of his Associates 
in the Cabinet 186 

CHAPTER XI. 

Mr. Jefferson's Retirement from the Cabinet of Washington 
— His Motives for so Doing — His Letters to Mr. Madison 
— His last Report to Congress — His Letter of Resignation 
— Causes of previous Dissensions in the Cabinet — Mr. 
Jefferson's Charges against Mr. Hamilton — Evidence of 
their Falsehood — The National Gazette — Freneau — Mr. 
Jefferson Refuses to Suppress the National Gazette — His 
Return to Monticello — His celebrated Letter to Mazzei — 
Jefferson's Apology to Washington for its Strictures on 
him 201 

CHAPTER XIL 

Mr. Jefferson elected Vice-President — His Relations to the 
President — The New Cabinet — Disputes with the French 
Government — American Envoys sent to Paris — Their Re- 
ception there — Mr. Jefferson's Political Creed — Indigna- 
tion in the United States against France — Napoleon 
Bonaparte succeeds to the French Directory, and makes 
a Treaty with the United States — Termination of Mr. 
Adams' Administration — The approaching Election — Dr. 
Logan's private Mission to France 224 

CHAPTER XIII.' 

Popular Excitement previous to the Election of 1801 — Re- 
sult of the Popular Vote — Jefferson's Letter to Burr — 
Election in the House of Representatives — The Equality 
of Votes between Jefferson and Burr — Influence of Alex- 
ander Hamilton — Election of Jefferson to the Presidency 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE 

—His Inaugural Address— Letter to Eldredge Gerry — 
Mr. Jefferson's Cabinet — His Letter to Thomas Paine — 
Mr. Livingston appointed Minister to France — War be- 
tween the United States and Tripoli — Its Incidents and 
Results — Mr. Jefferson's first Message to Congress — Mea- 
sures of the Administration — Negotiations respecting 
Louisiana 242 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Settlement of the Yazoo Claims in Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi — The Purchase of Louisiana from France — Letter 
of Mr. Jefferson on the subject to General Gates — Repeal 
of the Bankrupt Law — Mr. Jefferson's Views on the United 
States Bank — Death of Mrs. Eppes — Mr. Jefferson's Gun- 
boat System — Results of his First Administration — Mr. 
Jefferson's Motives and Excuses for a second Election — 
His Letter to Alexander I., Czar of Russia 264 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Conspiracy of Aaron Burr — The Nature of his Enter- 
prise — Mr. Randolph's Resolution in Congress — Arrest 
of Col. Burr — Incidents of the Trial — Eloquence of Wm. 
Wirt — Jefferson's Prejudices against Burr-^The Embargo 
Law — Mr. Jefferson's last Message to Congress — Addresses 
sent to Mr. Jefferson on his Retiring — Address of the 
Legislature of Virginia — Inauguration of Mr. Madison — 
Mr. Jefferson's final Return to Monticello — His Feelings 
on this Occasion 278 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Mr. Jefferson's Habits of Life in his Retirement — Incidents 
of his Residence at Monticello — The Mecklenburg Decla- 
ration of Independence — Mr. Jefferson's Pecuniary Diffi- 
culties — The Plan of a Lottery — Public Contributions to 
his Relief — His last Sickness — His Death — Estimate of 
his Character — His Religious Opinions — Defects of his 
Character — His Want of Sincerity and Truthfulness — 
His False Charges against Mr. Hamilton — Evidence of 



XU CaNTENTS. 

PAOB 

their Falsehood — His Secret Opposition to the Federal Con- 
stitution — Novel and Absurd Grounds of his Opposition — 
Chief Difference between Jefferson and Hamilton — Con- 
clusion 294 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. 
A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States 
of America, in General Congress Assembled, as First 
Written and afterward Amended 323 

No. II. 
Letters of John Randolph in relation to Mr. Jefferson's 
Election to the Presidency 330 

No. III. 
Jefferson's Note on Mr. Bayard 332 

No. IV. 
The solemn Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth 
of Virginia, on the Principles of the Constitution of the 
United States of America, and on the Violations of them.* 
Written by Mr. Jefferson 341 

No. V. 
Jefferson's estimate of Federalism and Democracy 346 

No. VI. 
Jefferson's Opinion of George Washington. 348 

No. VII. 
Jefferson's Opinion of Plato 350 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

No. VIII. PAGE 

Jefferson's Kules for the Conduct of Life 352 

No. IX. 
Jefferson's Correspondence after his Ketirement — 353 

No. X. 
Jefferson's Letters to the American Philosophical Society. . 354 

No. XL 
Jefferson's Opinion of Bonaparte and the English Govern- 
ment i 356 

No. XII. 
Jeffei'son's Views on the Cession of Louisiana, in a Letter 
to Captain Lewis 359 

No. XIIL 
Jefferson's Family and Descendants i 360 

No. XIV. 
Jefferson's Opinions in reference to the Society of the Cin- 
cinnati 361 

No. XV. 
Jefferson's Professions of Friendship and Secret Hostility 
to Burr 369 

No. XVI. 
Jefferson's Strictures on Washington's Administration..'.. 376 

No. XVIL 
Jefferson's celebrated Letter to Mazzei 383 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



CHAPTER I. 

birth op thomas jefferson — his ancestors — peter jefferson — tho- 
mas jefferson becomes a pupil of maurt — he enters william and 
mart college — his habits and peculiarities — dr. william small 
— Jefferson's attachment to miss burwell — his letters— gover- 
nor FAUQUIER — ELOQUENCE OF PATRICK HENRY — JEFFERSON'S JOURNEY 
TO PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK — HIS ADMISSION TO THE BAR — HIS 
QUALITIES AS A LAWYER — IS ELECTED TO THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF BUR- 
GESSES — HIS ACTIVITY AND INFLUENCE IN THAT BODY. 

Virginia possesses the high distinction of being 
the mother both of great empires and of great men. 
From her bosom have gone forth, in successive 
generations, the sturdy and enterprising myriads 
who have peopled the vast domains which lie to the 
south and west of her own borders; and which now 
constitute so large and so important a portion of 
this confederacy. She has also given birth to many 
distinguished men, who, in different eras of the 
past, have shed lustre on their native land by their 
genius, their patriotism, and the splendor of their 
achievements. Foremost among all these is Wash- 

(15) 



16 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

ington, the most illustrious sage and hero of modern 
times. It had been sufficient glory for any country 
to have produced him alone. But very near that 
stately and sublime jjersonage, there stands in the 
great pantheon of immortal fame another figure of 
impressive and solemn presence, to whom Virginia 
also gave existence, — and he is the subject of our 
present history. 

Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, in Albe- 
marle county, on the 2d of April, 1743. His ances- 
tors, on his father's side, were of Welsh descent; 
and his immediate predecessors had been among 
the earliest inhabitants of the Q^lony of Virginia. 
They enjoyed the reputation of having been intelli- 
gent, prosperous, and highly respectable citizens; 
and were the possessors of considerable wealth. 
The grandfather of Thomas Jeflferson had three 
sons. One of these died at an early age. Another 
removed to the southern extremity of the State, 
and there passed an unobtrusive and an obscure ex- 
istence. The third, who was named Peter, had 
removed from Chesterfield county where he had 
been reared, to Shadwell, where Thomas, his eldest 
child, was born. His wife was Jane Randolph, who 
was connected with one of the oldest and most 
reputable families in the colony. She was a wo- 
man of superior intelligence and amiability, and 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 17 

beqame the wife of Peter Jefierson in 1739, at the 
age of nineteen. 

Peter Jefierson, the father of Thomas, had never 
enjoyed many facilities for mental cultivation ; yet 
his natural talents were of a superior grade, and his 
industry in the pursuit of knowledge had been so 
persevering, while his judgment was regarded as so 
correct, that he was selected to perform the task of 
ascertaining and settling the boundary line between 
the territories of Virginia and North Carolina. His 
associate in this responsible task was Joshua Fry, 
the professor of mathematics in William and Mary 
College. 

When five years old, Thomas Jefferson com- 
menced his youthful studies at an English school. 
At nine he began the acquisition of the Latin, 
Greek, and French languages under the direction 
of a Scotch clergyman named Douglass. Peter Jef- 
ferson died in 1757, leaving two sons and six daugh- 
ters. But they were not destitute ; for to each of 
them their deceased parent had devised an estate. 
The plantation called Shadwell, w^here he first saw 
the light, was the portion which fell to the lot of 
the subject of this memoir — it also embraced the 
farm of Monticello. 

After his father's death Thomas became the pupil 
of Mr. Maury, an eminent classical scholar of that 
2* 



18 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

day; and under his careful tuition he remained 
during two years. At this period he was already 
remarkable for his great industry, and for the rapid 
progress which he made in his studies. He seemed 
to possess an intuitive fondness for intellectual pur- 
suits ; yet he frequently took great delight in the 
exercise and diversion of hunting, for which the 
neighboring mountains, which traverse a portion of 
Albemarle county, furnished the most favorable op- 
portunities. 

In 1760, w^hen seventeen years of age, Jefferson 
passed from the tuition of Mr. Maury to the higher 
studies and advantages of William and Mary College. 
He had been well prepared for the labors of this new 
sphere by the thorough instruction imparted to him 
by his former preceptors. He remained two years in 
connection with this institution, which was situated 
then as now at the city of Williamsburg ; which place 
Jefi'erson, in his earlier letters to his most intimate 
friends, designated by the somewhat satirical epithet 
of "Devilsburg." 

Respecting his pursuits and studies while at this 
institution Jefi'erson himself has furnished the most 
satisfactory account in his "Memoir." Says he: 
*' It w^as my great good fortune, and what probably 
fixed the destinies of my life, that Dr. William 
Small of Scotland was the professor of mathema- 



or THOMAS JEFFERSON. 19 

tics, a man profound in most of tbe useful brandies 
of science, with a happy talent of communication, 
correct and gentlemanly manners, and an enlarged 
and liberal mind. He, most happily for me, became 
soon attached to me, and made me his daily com- 
panion when not engaged in the school; and from 
his conversation I got my first views of the expan- 
sion of science, and of the system of things in which 
we are placed. Fortunately, the philosophical chair 
became vacant soon after my arrival at college, and 
he was appointed to fill it, ^j^'r iiiterim ; and he was 
the first who ever gave, in that college, regular lec- 
tures in ethics, rhetoric, and belles lettres. He re- 
turned to Europe in 1762, having previously filled 
up the measure of his goodness to me, by procuring 
for me, from his most intimate friend, George 
"Wythe, a reception as a student at law, under his 
direction, and introduced me to the acquaintance 
and familiar table of Governor Fauquier, the ablest 
man who had ever filled that ofiice. With him, and 
at his table. Dr. Small and Mr. "Wythe, his amici 
omnium horarum, and myself, formed a partie guarre, 
and to the habitual conversations on these occasions 
I owed much instruction. Mr. Wythe continued 
to be my faithful and beloved Mentor in youth, and 
my most afiectionate friend through life. In 1767, 
he led me into the practice of the law at the bar of 



20 THE LIPE AND TIMES 

the general court, at wliicli I continued until the 
Eevolution shut up the courts of justice." 

During the period of his residence at William 
and Mary College Jefferson was remarkable for the 
same habits of application, and for the same profi- 
ciency in his studies which he had previously dis- 
played. His chief amusement was playing on the 
violin, in which agreeable art he acquired consider- 
able skill. Ilis letters of this date also furnish 
satisfactory proof that the future victor over British 
despotism was himself vanquished by the potent 
power of Cupid ; and that he became even desperately 
in love. The object of his adoration was Miss Rebecca 
Burwell, a young lady of good family, and of con- 
Biderable intelligence and beauty. For a time his 
ardent suit seemed to prosper. The lady bestowed 
upon her admirer a watch-paper containing her por- 
trait. But this treasure, which Jefferson highly 
prized, was destined to be as evanescent as her love, 
for it was destroyed by the rain. 

We will here introduce the only specimens of the 
early epistolary writings of the future statesman of 
Virginia, which are now in existence. They are 
valuable both as being illustrative of his style of 
thought and expression at this youthful period, and 
as containing details of his life and experiences 
which throw considerable light on his feelings, char- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 21 

acter and pursuits. They were addressed to John 
Page, afterward Governor Page, of Virginia; and 
were furnished by his son to one of the biographers 
of Mr. Jefferson. 

"Fairfield, December 25, 1762. 
" Dear Page : 
" This very day, to others the day of greatest mirth 
and jolity, sees me overwhelmed with more and 
greater misfortunes than have befallen a descendant 
of Adam for these thousand years past I am sure ; 
and perhaps, after excepting Job, since the creation 
of the world. I think his misfortunes were some- 
what greater than mine : for although we may be 
pretty nearly on a level in other respects, yet, I 
thank my God, I have the advantage of brother 
Job in this, that Satan has not as yet put forth his 
hand to load me with bodily afflictions. You must 
know, dear Page, that I am now in a house sur- 
rounded with enemies who take counsel together 
against my soul ; and when I lay me down to rest, 
they say among themselves, ' Come, let us destroy 
him.' I am sure if there is such a thing as a Devil 
in this world, he must have been here last night 
and have had some hand in contriving what hap- 
pened to me. Do you think the cursed rats (at his 
instigation, I suppose) did not eat up my pocket- 
book, which was in my pocket, within a foot of my 



22 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

head ? And Dot contented with plenty for the pre- 
sent, they carried away my jemmy- worked silk 
garters, and half a dozen new minuets I had just 
got, to serve, I suppose, as provision for the winter. 
But of this I should not have accused the Devil, 
(because, you know rats will be rats, and hunger, 
without the addition of his instigations, might have 
urged them to do this,) if something worse, and 
from a different quarter, had not happened. You 
know it rained last night, or if you do not know it, 
I am sure I do. When I w^ent to bed, I laid my 
watch in the usual place, and going to take her up, 
after I arose this morning, I found her in the same 
place, it's true, but! Quantum mutatus ah illo! all 
afloat in water, let in at a leak in the roof of the 
house, and as silent and still as the rats that had eat 
my pocket-book. Now, you know, if chance had 
had any thing to do in this matter, there were a 
thousand other spots where it might have chanced 
to leak as well as at this one, which was perpen- 
dicularly over my watch. But I'll tell you ; it's my 
opinion that the Devil came and bored the hole over 
it on purpose. "Well, as I was saying, my poor 
watch had lost her speech. I should not have cared 
much for this, but something worse attended it; the 
subtle particles of the water with which the case 
was filled, had, by their penetration, so overcome 



OF THOMAS JEFFEEFSON". 23 

the cohesion of the particles of the paper, of which 
my dear picture aud watch-paper were composed, 
that, in attempting to take them out to dry them, 
good God ! Mens horret referre I my cursed fingers 
gave them such a rent as, I fear, I. shall never get 
over. This, cried I, was the last stroke Satan had 
in reserve for me; he knew I cared not for any 
thing else lie could do to me, and was determind to 
try this last most fatal expedient. '■ Multis fortunes 
vulnerihus, percussus, huic uni me imparem sensi, et 
penitus succubuil' I would have cried bitterly, but 
I thought it beneath the dignity of a man, and a 
man too who had read rwv ovtuv, ta ficv i^'rjfiiv, ta 6'«x 
s^^i^iv. However, whatever misfortunes may attend 
tbe picture or lover, my hearty prayers shall be, 
that all the health and happiness which Heaven can 
send may be the portion of the original, and that 
so much goodness may ever meet with what may be 
most agreeable in this world, as I am sure it must 
be in the next. And now, although the picture be 
defaced, there is so lively an image of her imprinted 
in my mind, that I shall think of her too often, I 
fear, for my peace of mind; and too often, I am 
sure, to get through old Coke this winter; fbr God 
knows I have not seen him since I packed him up 
in my trunk in Williamsburg. Well, Page, I do 
wish the Devil had old Coke, for I am sure I never 



24 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

was SO tired of an old dull scoundrel in my life. 
Wliat ! are there so few inquietudes tacked to this 
momentary life of ours, that we must need be load- 
ing ourselves with a thousand more ? Or, as brother 
Job says, (who, by-the-by, I think, began to whine a 
little under his atflictions,) 'Are not my days few? 
Cease, then, that I may take comfort a little before 
I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of 
darkness and the shadow of .death." But the old 
fellows say we must read to gain knowledge, and 
gain know^ledge to make us happy and be admired. 
Mere jargon! Is there any such thing as happiness 
in this world ? No. And as for admiration, I am 
sure the man who powders most, perfumes most, 
embroiders most, and talks most nonsense, is most 
admired. Though to be candid, there are some who 
have too much good sense to esteem such monkey- 
like animals as these, in whose formation, as the 
saying is, the tailors and barbers go halves with God 
Almighty; and since these are the only persons 
whose esteem is worth a wish, I do not know but 
that, upon the whole, the advice of these old fellows 
may be worth following. 

" You cannot conceive the satisfaction it would 
give me to have a letter from you. Write me very 
circumstantially every thing which happened at the 
wedding. Was she there ? because, if she was, I 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 25 

ought to have been at the Devil for not being there 
too. If there is any news stirring in town or 
country, such as deaths, courtships, or marriages, 
in the circle of my acquaintance, let me know it. 
Remember me aiFectionately to all the young ladies 
of my acquaintance, particularly the Miss Burwella 
and Miss Potters, and tell them that though that 
heavy earthly part of me, my body, be absent, the 
better half of me, my soul, is ever with them ; and 
that my best wishes shall ever attend them. Tell 
Miss Alice Corbiu that I verily believe the rats 
knew I was to win a pair of garters from her, or 
they never would have been so cruel as to carry 
mine away. This very consideration makes me so 
sure of the bet, that I shall ask every body I see 
from that part of the world wdiat pretty gentleman 
is making his addresses to her. I would fain ask 
the favor of Miss Becca Burwell to give me an- 
other watch paper of her own cutting, which I 
should esteem much more, though it were a plain 
round one, than the nicest in the world cut by 
other hands — however, I am afraid she would think 
this presumption, after my suffering the other to 
get spoiled. If you think you can excuse me to 
her for this, I should be glad if you would ask her. 
Tell Miss Sukey Potter that I heard, just before I 
came out of town, that she was offended with me 
3 



26 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

about something, what it is I do not know ; but 
this I know, that I never was guilty of tlie least 
disrespect to her in my life, either in word or deed ; 
as far from it as it has been possible for one to be. 
I suppose when we meet next, she will be endeavor- 
ing to repay an imaginary aft'ront with a real one ; 
but she may save herself the trouble, for nothing 
that she can say or do to me shall ever lessen her 
in my esteem ; and I am determined always to look 
upon her as the same honest-hearted, good-hu- 
mored, agreeable lad}^ I ever did. Tell — tell — in 
short, tell them all ten thousand things more than 
either you or I can now or ever shall think of as 
long as we live. 

" My mind has been so taken up with thinking 
of my acquaintances, that, till this moment, I 
almost imagined myself in Williamsburg, talking 
to you in our old unreserved way ; and never ob- 
served, till I turned over the leaf, to what an immo- 
derate size I had swelled my letter — however, that 
I may not tire your patience by further additions, I 
will make but this one more, that I am sincerely 
and affectionately, 

Dear Page, your friend and servant. 

"P. S. I am now within an easy day's ride of 
Shadwell, whither I shall proceed in two or three 
days." 



OF THOMAS JEFFEllSON. 27 

"Shadwell, Jan. 20th, 1763. 
"Dear Page: 
" To tell you the plain truth, I have not a syllable 
to write to you about. For I do not conceive that 
any thing can happen in my world which you would 
give a curse to know, or I either. All things hero 
appear to me to trudge on in one and the same 
round: we rise in the morning that we may cat 
breakfast, dinner and supper, and go to bed again 
that we may get up the next morning and do the 
same : so that you never saw two peas more alike 
than our yesterday and to-day. Under these cir- 
cumstances, what would you have me say ? 
"Would you that I should write nothing but truth? 
I tell you I know nothing that is true. Or would 
you rather that I should write you a pack of lies ? 
Why, unless they were more ingenious than I am 
able to invent, they would furnish you with little 
amusement. What can I do then? nothing, but 
ask you the news in your world. How have you 
done since I saw you ? How did Nancy look at 
you when you danced with her at Southall's? 
Have you any glimmering of hope ? How docs R. 
B. do? Had I better stay here and do nothing, or 
go down and do less ? or, in other words, had I 
better stay here while I am here, or go down that I 
may have the pleasure of sailing up the river again 



28 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

iu a full-rigged flat? Inclination tells me to go, 
receive my sentence, and be no longer in suspense : 
but reason says, if you go, and your attempt proves 
unsuccessful, you will be ten times more wretched 
than ever. In my last to you, dated Fairfield, Dec. 
25, I wrote to you of the losses I had sustained ; 
iu the present I may mention one more, which is 
the loss of the whites of my eyes, in the room of 
which I have got reds, which gives me such exqui- 
site pain that I have not attempted to read any 
thing since a few days after Jack "Walker went 
down; and God knows w^hen 1 shall be able to do 
it. I have some thoughts of going to Petersburg, 
if the actors go there in May. If I do, I do not 
know but I may keep on to Williamsburg, as the 
birth night will be near. I hear that Ben Harrison 
has been to Wilton ; let me know his success. 
Have you an inclination to travel. Page ? because 
if you have, I shall be glad of your company. For 
you must know that as soon as the Rebecca (the 
name I intend to give the vessel above mentioned) 
is completely finished, I intend to hoist sail and 
away. I shall visit particularly England, Holland, 
France, Spain, Italy, (where I would buy me a good 
fiddle,) and Egypt, and return through the British 
provinces to the Northward, home. This to be 
sure, would take us two or three years, and if we 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 29 

should not both be cured of love in that time, I 
think the Devil would be in it. After desiring you 
to remember me to acquaintances below, male and 
female, I subscribe myself, 

Dear Page, your friend aud servant." 

" Shadwell, July 15tli, 1765. 
"Dear Page: 
*' Yours of May 30th came safe to hand. The 
rival you mentioned I know not whether to think 
formidable or not, as there has been so great an 
opening for him during my absence. I say has 
been, because I expect there is one no longer, 
since you have undertaken to act as ray. attorney. 
You advise me to go immediately aud lay siege m 
for7n. You certainly did not think, at the time 
you wrote this, of that paragraph in my letter 
wherein I mentioned ta you my resolution of going 
to Britain. And to begin an affair of that kind 
now, and carry it on so long a time in form, is by 
no means a proper plan. No, no, Page ; whatever 
assurances I may give her in private of my esteem 
for her, or whatever assurances I may ask in return 
from her, depend on it — they must be kept in pri- 
vate. Necessity will oblige me to proceed in a 
method which is not generally thought fair; that 
of treating with a ward before obtaining the appro- 
3* 



30 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

bation of her guardian. I say necessity will oblige 
me to it, because I never can bear to remain in 
suspense so long a time. If I am to succeed, the 
Booner I know it, the less uneasiness I shall have to 
go through. If I am to meet with a disappoint- 
ment, the sooner I know it, the more of life I shall 
have to wear it off: and if I do meet wnth one, I 
hope in God, and verily believe, it will be the last. 
I assure you, that I almost envy you your present 
freedom ; and if Belinda will not accept of my ser- 
vice, it shall never be offered to another. That she 
may, I pray most sincerely ; but that she will, she 
never gave me reason to hope. With regard to my 
not proceeding in form, I do not know how she 
may like it. I am afraid not much. That her guard- 
ians would not, if they should know of it, is very 
certain. But I should think that if they were con- 
sulted after I return, it would be sufficient. The 
greatest inconvenience would be my not having the 
liberty of visiting so freely. This is a subject 
worth your talking over with her ; and I wish you 
would, and would transmit to me your whole confiib 
at length. I should be scared to death at making 
her so unreasonable a proposal as that of waiting 
until I return from Britain, unless she could first be 
prepared for it. I am afraid it will make my 
chance of succeeding considerably worse. But the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 31 

event at last must be this, that if she consents, I 
shall be happy; if she does not, I must endeavor 
to be as much so as possible. I have thought a 
good deal on your case ; and as mine may perhaps 
be similar, I must endeavor to look on it in the 
same light in which I have often advised you to 
look on yours. Perfect happiness, I believe, was 
never intended by the Deity to be the lot of one 
of his creatures in this world ; but that he has very 
much put in our power the nearness of our ap- 
proaches to it, is what I have steadfastly believed. 

" The most fortunate of us, in our journey 
through life, frequently meet with calamities and 
misfortunes which may greatly afflict us ; and, to 
fortify our minds against the attacks of these cala- 
mities and misfortunes, should be one of the prin- 
cipal studies and endeavors of our lives. The only 
method of doing this is to assume a perfect resig- 
nation to the Divine will, to consider that whatever 
does happen, must happen ; and that by our unea- 
siness, we cannot prevent the blow before it does 
fall, but we may add to its force after it has fallen. 
These considerations, and others such as these, may 
enable us in some measure to surmount the diffi- 
culties thrown in our way ; to bear up with a toler- 
able degree of patience under this burthen of life ; 
and to proceed with a pious and unshaken rcsigna- 



32 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

tion, till we arrive at our journey's end, wlien we 
may deliver up our trust into the hands of Him who 
gave it, and receive such reward as to Him shall 
seemed proportioned to our merit. Such, dear 
Page, will be the language of the man who consi- 
ders his situation in this life, and such should be 
the language of every man who would wish to 
render that situation as easy as the nature of it will 
admit. Few things will disturb him at all : nothing 
will disturb him much. 

" If this letter was to fall into the hands of some 
of our gay acquaintance, your correspondent and 
his solemn notions would probably be the subjects 
of a great deal of mirth and raillery, but to you, I 
think, I can venture to send it. It is in effect a 
continuation of the many conversations we have 
had on subjects of this kind ; and I heartily 'wish 
we could now continue these conversations face to 
face. The time will not be very long now before 
we may do it, as I expect to be in Williamsburg by 
the first of October, if not sooner. I do not know 
that I shall have occasion to return, if I can rent 
rooms in town to lodge in ; and to prevent the in- 
convenience of moving my lodgings for the future, 
I think to build : no castle though, I assure you : 
only a small house, which shall contain a room for 
myself and another for you, and no more, unless 



OF THOMAS JEF1''ERP0N. 33 

Belinda should think proper to favor us with her 
company, in which case, I will enlarge the plan as 
much as she pleases. Make my compliments to her 
particularly, as also to Sukey Potter, Judy Burwell, 
and such others of my acquaintance as inquire after 
me. I am, 

Dear Page, your sincere friend," &c. 

" Williamsburg, October 7, 1763. 
" Dear Page : 
" In the most melancholy fit that ever any poor 
soul was, I sit down to write to you. Last night, 
as merry as agreeable company and dancing with 
Belinda in the Apollo could make me, I never 
could have thought the succeeding sun would, have 
seen me so wretched as I now am ! I was prepared 
to say a great deal : I had dressed up in my own 
mind, such thoughts as occurred to me, in as mov- 
ing language as I knew how, and expected to have 
performed in a tolerably creditable manner. But, 
good God ! When I had an opportunity of venting 
them, a few broken sentences, uttered in great dis- 
order, and interrupted with pauses of uncommon 
length, were the too visible marks of my strange 
confusion ! The whole confab I will tell you, word 
for word, if I can, when I see you, which God send 
may be soon. Affairs at W. and M. are in the 



34 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

greatest confusion. "Walker, M'Clurg and Wat 
Jones are expelled j9ro tempore, or, as Horrox softens 
it, rusticated for a month. Lewis Burwell, Warner 
Lewis, and one Thompson have fled to escape fla- 
gellation. I should have excepted Warner Lewis, 
who came off of his own accord. Jack Walker 
leaves town on Monday. The court is now at hand, 
which I must attend constantly, so that unless you 
come to town, there is little probability of my meet- 
ing with you any where else. For God's sake come. 
I am, dear Page, 

Your sincere friend," &c. 

4- 
Jefferson is described at this period as having been 

very tall, thin and raw-boned. His hair was red, 
his features were sharp and pointed, and his face 
was freckled. Yet, to counterbalance these disad- 
vantages, his countenance was very intelligent and 
expressive, his conversation was lively and enter- 
taining, and not a few indications were constantly 
given, both by his language and by his actions, 
of the possession of a superior and a powerful intel- 
lect. 

During the college terms of Jefferson, he was an 
acquaintance and favorite of Mr. Farquier, at that 
time the British governor of the colony. This gen- 
tleman was remarkable for his superior talents, his 



OF THOMAS JFrrERSON. 35 

literary acqiiirenients, and his polislied iiianuers. 
From these qualities of his friend Jefterson derived 
niucli benefit; for being thrown into frequent and 
kindly intercourse with the governor, he was enabled 
to improve himself by imitating so excellent a 
model. But Governor Farquier had other pecu- 
liarities which were not so commendable. These 
were his approval of infidel sentiments, both in 
philosophy and in religion, and an excessive fond- 
ness for gambling. It is not improbable that the fre- 
quent conversations which occurred between Jefler- 
son and liis accomplished friend may have resulted 
in a similarity of opinions to some extent,, and may 
have laid the foundation for that boldness of specu- 
lation which characterized Jefterson throughout his 
whole life. It does not appear, however, that he 
imitated the governor in his devotion to the vice of 
gaming. 

Mr. Jeflferson was still a student of William and 
Mary College when the memorable dispute began 
between Great Britain and the Colonies. A young 
man of his superior intelligence would very natu- 
rally take a deep interest in such a controversy. 
Accordingly he embraced every opportunity to 
attend the sittings of the Virginia House of Bur- 
gesses, and listened to the debates which there took 
place in reference to the encroachments and prero- 



36 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

gatives of the British monarch. It was in May, 
1765, that he first heard the unrivalled and thrilling 
eloquence of Patrick Henry, the Miraheau of the 
American Eevolution. Jefferson always contended 
that, during his whole subsequent life he had never 
listened to so powerful and so consummate an ora- 
tion as Henry delivered on that occasion. Whether 
this estimate of the oratorical abilities of this cele- 
brated man was just; or whether much allowance 
should be made for the profound impression which 
such an unusual display would make upon a young 
and susceptible person who was then unfamiliar 
with the triumphs of that great art, it is difiicult 
now to determine. At any rate, the whole soul of 
Jefierson was then already enlisted in behalf of the 
independence and the rights of the colonies, and his 
ardor in the cause continued from that period with- 
out abatement. 

At length having completed his studies at Wil- 
liam and Mary College, Jefierson returned to Sbad- 
well. He employed his first leisure in making a 
journey to Philadelphia and New York, the object 
of which was to obtain inoculation for the small- 
pox* and to enlarge his acquaintance with the colo- 
nies and their chief cities. He traveled three hun- 
dred miles in a one-horse chaise; and the incon- 
veniences which attended locomotion at that period 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 37 

may. be inferred from the fact that, in a single jour- 
ney, he was frequently drenched with rain, and was 
several times in danger of being drowned when ford- 
ing the streams which had been swollen by the rains. 
Immediately on his return from this excursion, 
Jefferson was elected a justice of the peace of Albe- 
marle county, having subsequently completed his 
legal studies under Mr. "Wythe, and having been ad- 
mitted to practice as an attorney in 1767. As 
already stated in the extract quoted from his " Me- 
moir," Jefferson established himself at Williams- 
burg. Seven years were passed by him in the quiet 
performance of his professional labors. He ex- 
hibited the same qualities as a lawyer which marked 
him previously as a student, and which adorned him 
subsequently as a statesman. He was not brilliant 
or showy in his forensic efforts ; but he w^as labori- 
ous, thorough and learned. His manuscript notes 
gave abundant evidence that he prepared his cases 
with the most patient research. He was gradually 
advancing to a prominent position among the ablest 
lawyers of Virginia, at the period when the revolu- 
tionary struggle called him away to a higher and 
more important sphere.* As a speaker, Jefferson 



• The language of William Wirt on this subject is explicit: says 
he — "Permit me to correct an error which seems to have prevailed. 
It has been thought that Mr. Jeflferson made no figure at the Bar; 

4 



88 THE LIFE AND TTMES 

could never have been eminent. His voice liad 
neither compass, flexibility, or power. But as a 
writer and thinker his great superiority was clearly 
manifest on every occasion, and it was not without 
sufficient reason tliat he was subsequently selected 
from among the large body of able and distinguished 
men who composed the Continental Congress, to 
compose the immortal imii/na charta of a nation's 
freedom. 

When twenty-six years of age, in 1769, Jefierson 
was elected a member of the Virginia House of 
Burgesses for the county of Albemarle, Fi-om the 
moment that he entered this important body he 
became remarkable for his industry, his promi- 
nence, and the decisive stand which he took either 
in the proposal or in the support of patriotic mea- 
sures. Only a short time previous to this period, 
the British parliament had passed resolutions which 
severely condemned the stand which tlie Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts had taken against the grow- 
ing encroachments of British tyranny. The Legis- 
lature of Virginia, on the receipt of this information, 
adopted a series of resolutions in which they 

but the case wfis far otherwise. There are still extant, iu his own 
fair and neat hand, in the manner of his master, a number of argu- 
ments which were delivered by him at the Bar upon some of the 
most intricate questions of the law ; which, if ther shall ever see the 
light, will vindicate his claims to the first honors of the profession." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 39 

boldly declared that the right to levy taxes in Vir- 
ginia belonged exclusively to themselves ; that they 
possessed, and that they should always exercise, the 
privilege of petitioning the king for a redress of 
grievances; and they further declared, that the 
transportation to England of persons accused of 
treason in the colonies, in order there to be tried, 
was illegal, unconstitutional, and unjust. In the 
discussion and the passage of these resolutions, Mr. 
Jefferson took a decided and prominent part. 

No sooner were the resolutions passed than the 
governor. Lord Bottetourt, dissolved the Assembly. 
A crisis had at length arrived, and it now became 
the duty of the friends of liberty to take a resolute 
and determined course. Indecisive measures were 
no longer available. The next day a large number 
of the members of the dissolved legislature met 
at the Raleigh Tavern in "Williamsburg, and 
formed an association for the purpose of carrying 
forward and completing the movement which had 
already been begun. These persons pledged their 
honors not to import or purchase certain specified 
articles of British merchandise, as long as the act 
of parliament authorizing the taxation of the colo- 
nies remained unrepealed. Eighty-eight members of 
the legislature signed this compact, and among the 
number were George Washington, Patrick Henry, 



40 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas Jefferson. Thus 
was the first decisive stand taken in Virginia against 
British despotism by au an association of patriots, 
all the most prominent of whom were young men, 
whose names and abilities were as yet almost 
wholly unknown to the country. 

It was also during this first term of his service 
in the legislature, that Mr. Jefferson proposed the 
adoption of measures having reference to the sub- 
ject of negro slavery. He did not urge the general 
manumission of the slaves, as has sometimes been 
asserted ; but he suggested that the restrictions 
which then existed, and which prevented owners 
from conferring freedom on their slaves when they 
even desired so to do, should be removed. Yet his 
efforts were fruitless ; and it was only in 1782 that 
even this cautious and limited policy was allowed to 
prevail. 



OF THOMAS JErFERSON. 41 



CHAPTER II. 



BURNING OF Jefferson's residence — his marriage — etents op 1773 — 

PROCEEDINGS IN RHODE ISLAND — MEASURES OF THE VIRGINIA HOUSB 
OF BURGESSES — COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE — BRITISH AGGRES- 
SIONS — STEPS OP RESISTANCE TAKEN IN VIRGINIA — ACTIVITY OF MR. 
JEFFERSON — THE CONVENTION — RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THAT BODY 
— THE " SUMMARY VIEW OF THE RIGHTS OF BRITISH AMERICA" — DELE- 
GATES TO THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS — JEFFERSON'S RESOLU- 
TIONS IN THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE — HIS ANSWER TO LORD NORTH'S 
PROPOSITION. 



The year 1770 opened with the occurrence of a 
personal calamity of no small moment to Mr. Jeffer- 
son. His residence at Shadwell, where he had 
spent his youth, and which was then the abode of 
his widowed mother, was burnt to the ground. 
This misfortune occurred during his absence, and 
his loss was not confined simply to the destruction 
of the edifice. His library, for which he had 
paid about a thousand dollars, and all his manu- 
scripts, notes, and papers fell a prey to the flames. 
Not a solitary piece of writing remained. The loss 
of his law books was particularly severe, inasmuch 
as they could not be easily replaced, and that loss 
greatly exceeded their nominal value. 

The following letter was written by young Jef- 
4* 



42 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

ferson in reference to this calamity, to his intimate 
friend Page ; and throws much light upon the na- 
ture of hismisfortune, and the feelings with which 
he endured it. 

« Charlottesville, Feb. 21, 1770. 
" Dear Page : 
" I am to acquaint Mrs. Page of the loss of my 
favorite pullet ; the consequence of which will 
readily occur to her. I promised also to give her 
some Virginia silk which I had expected, and I 
begin to wish my expectation may not prove vain. 
I fear she will think me but an ungainly acquaint- 
ance. My late loss may perhaps have reached you 
by this time ; I mean the loss of my mother's house 
by fire, and in it of every paper I had in the world, 
and almost every book. On a reasonable estimate 
I calculate the cost of the books burned to have 
been <£200 sterling. "Would to God it had been the 
money, then had it never cost me a sigh ! To make 
the loss more sensible, it fell principally on my 
books of Common Law, of which I have but one 
left, at that time lent out. Of papers too of every 
kind I am utterly destitute. All of these, whether 
public or private, of business or of amusement, 
have perished in the flames. I had made some 
progress in preparing for the succeeding General 
Court ; and having, as was my custom, thrown my 



OF THOMAS JEFFEESON. 43 

thoughts into the form of notes, I troubled m}' head 
no more with them. These are gone, and Uke the 
baseless fabric of a vision, leave not a trace behind. 
The records also, and other papers which furnished 
me with states of the several cases, having shared 
the same fate, I have no foundation whereon to set 
out anew. I have in vain attempted to recollect 
some of them ; the defect sometimes of one, some- 
times of more circumstances, rendering them so 
imperfect, that I can make nothing of them. What 
am I to do then in April ? The resolution which 
the court has declared of admitting no continuances 
of causes seemed to be unalterable; yet it might 
surely be urged, that my case is too singular to 
admit of their being often troubled with the like 
excuse. Should it be asked, what are tlie misfor- 
tunes of an individual to* a court ? The answer of 
a court, as well as of an individual, if left to me, 
should be in the words of Terence, "/torno sum; 
Jiumani nil a me alienum futo' — but a truce with 
this disagreeable subject. 

" Am I never more to have a letter from you ? 
"Why the devil don't you write ? But I suppose 
you are always in the moon, or some of the plane- 
tary regions. I mean you are there in idea ; and 
unless you mend, you shall have my consent to be 
there de facto; at least, during the vacations of the 



44 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Court of Assembly. If your spirit is too elevated 
to advert to sublunary subjects, depute my friend Mrs. 
Page to support your correspondences. Methinks I 
should, with wonderful pleasure, open and peruse a 
letter written by so fair, and (what is better) so 
friendly hands. If thinking much of you would en- 
title me to the civility of a letter, I assure you I merit 
a very long one. If this conflagration, by which I 
am burned out of a home, had come before I had 
advanced so far in preparing another, I do not 
know but I might have cherished some treasonable 
thoughts of leaving these my native hills ; indeed I 
should be much happier were I nearer to Eosewell 
and Severn hills — however, the gods, I fancy, were 
apprehensive that if we were placed together, we 
should pujl down the moon, or play some such 
devilish prank with their works. I reflect often 
with pleasure on the philosophical evenings I passed 
at Rosewell in my last visits there. I was always 
fond of philosophy, even in its drier forms; but 
from a ruby lip, it comes with charms irresistible. 
Such a feast of sentiment must exhilarate and 
lengthen life, at least as much as the feast of the 
sensualist shortens it — in a word, I prize it so 
highly, that, if you will at any time collect the 
same Belle AssembUe, on giving me three days 
previous notice, I shall certainly repair to my place 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 45 

as a member of it. Sliould it not happen before I 
come down, I will carry Sally Nicholas in the green 
chair to Newquarter, where your periagua (how the 
should I spell that word ?) will meet us, auto- 
maton-like, of its own accord. You know I had a 
wagon which moved itself — cannot we construct a 
boat then which shall row itself? Amicus noster, 
Fons, quo modo agit, et quid agit? You may be all 
dead for any thing we can tell here. I expect he 
will follow the good old rule of driving one passion 
out by letting another in. Clavum clavo pangere 
was your advice to me on a similar occasion. I 
hope you will watch his immersion as narrowly as 
if he were one of Jupiter's satellites ; and give me 
immediate notice, that I may prepare a dish of 
advice. I do not mean, Madam, to advise him 
against it. On the contrary, I am become an advo- 
cate for the passion ; for I too am coela tactus, Currus 
bene se hahet. He speaks, thinks, and dreams of 
nothing but his young son. This friend of ours, 
Page, in a very small house, with a table, half a 
dozen chairs, and one or two servants, is the hap- 
piest man in the universe. Every incident in life 
he so takes as to render it a source of pleasure. 
With as much benevolence as the heart of a man 
will hold, but with an utter neglect of the costly 
apparatus of life, he exhibits to the world a new 



46 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

phenomenon in philosophy — the Samian sage in the 
tub of the cynic. ITame me sometimes homunculo 
tuo, not forgetting little die mendacium. I am de- 
termined not to enter on the next page, lest I 
should extend this nonsense to the bottom of that 
also. A dieu je vous commis, not doubting his care 
of you both." 

Nevertheless, he immediately set to work to 
remedy the misfortune as rapidly as possible. Se- 
veral years then passed away in the performance of 
his professional duties. On the 1st of January, 
1772, he was married to Mrs. Martha Skelton, the 
widow of Bathurst Skelton. She was the daughter 
of John Wayles, a prominent member of the Vir- 
ginia Bar. This gentleman died in 1773, and left a 
large estate, one-third of which fell to the lot of 
Mr. Jefferson. This union proved to be a pecu- 
liarly happy one, and during many subsequent years 
became the source of the utmost domestic enjoy- 
ment to both parties. 

During 1772 the political storms which had pre- 
viously begun to agitate the country to some extent 
subsided, in consequence of the partial repeal of 
the obnoxious duties formerly imposed by the Bri- 
tish parliament. New causes of discontent arose in 
Rhode Island, in 1773. A Court of Inquiry was 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 47 

held in that province, vested with povcer to send 
persons accused of treason to England for trial. It 
had already become the determined purpose of Jef- 
ferson, and a few congenial spirits in Virginia, to 
take advantage of every occasion to keep alive the 
spirit of resistance to British tyranny in the colo- 
nies, as being preparatory to the final great act of 
entire and absolute separation. Accordingly, as 
soon as information of the proceedings of Rhode 
Island had reached Virginia, a few prominent mem- 
bers of the legislature, then in session at Williams- 
burg, determined to bring this matter before that 
body. Previous to taking this step, however, they 
met privately at the Raleigh Tavern, on the 11th of 
March, 1773, to deliberate on the measures which it 
behooved them to adopt. The leaders of this move- 
ment were Jefferson, Patrick Henry, R. H. Lee, F. 
L. Lee, and Dabney Carr. These patriots adopted 
the plan of appointing Committees of Correspon- 
dence between the legislatures of the different colo- 
nies. The ultimate aim of these committees was 
to propose the meeting of deputies from all the 
colonies in a general Congress. Mr. Jefferson was 
appointed to draft a series of resolutions recom- 
mending to the legislature the appointment of such 
committees ; and also another resolution requesting 
an inquiry to be made in reference to the obnoxious 



48 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

and tyrannical proceedings which had but recently 
occurred in Rhode Island. Mr. Dabney Carr was 
selected, in consequence of his superior oratorical 
abilities, to offer the resolutions in the legislature, 
and to support them by his eloquence. 

Accordingly, on the next morning, the resolutions 
were proposed by Mr. Carr in the House of Bur- 
gesses, and were supported by him with extraordi- 
nary pathos and fervor. They were adopted unani- 
mously on the same day. The support given to 
these resolutions by Mr. Carr at once raised him to 
a high eminence among his distinguished associates ; 
and a very brilliant future was naturally predicted 
for him. But his name never once occurs ao;ain in 
the stirring history of those times. He died sud- 
denly and unexpected^ only two mouths after the 
passage of the resolutions. 

But though Mr. Carr himself vanished so quickly 
from the scene, the influence and the rich results of 
his activity remained. The legislature was imme- 
diately dissolved by the governor in consequence of 
these events ; yet his measures were utterly impo- 
tent to stop the mighty tide of popular feeling which 
had already begun to flow. The committee of cor- 
respondence was immediately appointed. They or- 
ganized themselves without delay, and commenced 
operations. They prepared a circular, copies of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 49 

whicli they addressed to tlie chairmen of the legis- 
latures of the various colouies, and these they dis- 
patched, without delay, to tlieir respective destina- 
tions by expresses. The consequence of these mea- 
sures was, that similar committees of correspondence 
were appointed by all the different colonies ; a 
channel of direct communication was thus opened 
between them; an interchange of sentiment and of 
purpose took place; energetic plans were discussed; 
unity of purpose was introduced; and the grand 
result followed that, in the ensuing year, the general 
Congress assembled to deliberate upon the great 
questions of political life and death, which then 
agitated the whole continent. 

It is true that the first idea of appointing a commit- 
tee of correspondence between the colonies was due, 
not to the patriots of Virginia, but to those of 
Massachusetts. In 1765, immediately after the pas- 
sage of the Stamp Act, the legislature of that State 
proposed a meeting of deputies from the several 
colonies to consult together on their common diffi- 
culties. And subsequently, in 1770, a similar reso- 
lution was adopted by the same body. But it is also 
true, that these resolutions were in neither case prac- 
tically carried out. They remained in substance a 
dead letter. But Virginia possesses the credit not only 
of following this excellent example, but also of being 



60 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

the first to execute the resolutions thus adopted. 
To Massachusetts belongs the honor of first suggest- 
ing this admirable plan of farthering the aims of 
freedom ; to Virginia that of giving that plan prac- 
tical fulfillment and efficacy. 

Other difficulties soon arose between England 
and her incensed colonies. In consequence of the 
diminution of trade between the two countries, a 
vast amount of tea had accumulated in the ware- 
houses of the East India Company. This immense 
monopoly was a favorite of the British government; 
and it obtained permission to transport their tea to 
the American ports free of duty, on the unjust con- 
dition that, on its arrival at its destination, a duty 
of three-pence per pound should be paid. This 
unfair arrangement at once threw the inhabitants 
of Massachusetts into a state of intense indignation. 
The first cargo was totally destroyed in December, 
1773. As a measure of retaliation, the British 
government passed the Boston Port Bill, by which 
that town was to be deprived of all its foreign trade 
from and after June, 1774. The Legislature of Vir- 
ginia was in session when these events transpired. 
Mr. Jefterson was still a member. At his instance 
the small body of patriots who had convened on a 
previous occasion, were again summoned in order 
to determine upon the proper measures to be taken. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 51 

He himself describes the events which took place at 
this crisis iu the following language : 

" The lead in the House, on these subjects, being 
no longer left to the old members, Mr. Henry, R. 
H. Lee, Fr. L. Lee, three or four other members, 
whom I do not recollect, and myself, agreeing that 
we must boldly take an unequivocal stand in the 
line of Massachusetts, determined to meet and con- 
sult on the proper measures, in the council chamber, 
for the benefit of the library in that room. We 
were under conviction of the necessity of rousing 
our people from the lethargy into which they had 
fallen, as to passing events; and thought that the 
appointment of a day of general fasting and prayer, 
would be most likely to call up and alarm their 
attention. No example of such a solemnity had ex- 
isted since the days of our distresses in the war of 
'55, since which a new generation had grown up. 
With the help, therefore, of Rushworth, whom we 
rummaged over for the revolutionary precedents 
and forms of the Puritans of that day, preserved by 
him, we cooked up a resolution, somewhat moderating 
their phrases, for appointing the 1st day of June, on 
which the Port Bill was to commence, for a day of 
fasting, liumiliation, and prayer ; to implore Heaven 
to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire 
us with firmness in the support of our rights, and to 



fi2 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

turn the hearts of the king and parliament to mode- 
ratiou and justice." 

This important instrument was duly presented to 
the legislature, and it was passed without opposition 
on the 24th of May.* But the patriots did not stop 
with this decisive step. They passed a resolution to 
recommend to the counties of the State to elect 
delegates who should meet in the ensuing August, 
who should select representatives for the State in 
the Continental Congress. In pursuance of this 
resolution, delegates were chosen to meet in conven- 
tion. Mr. Jefferson was one of these. He prepared 
a draft of instructions to be given to the congres- 
sional representatives who would be chosen, which 
he termed "A Summary View of the Rights of 
British America." This paper was addressed to the 
king, and contained a clear and powerful exposition 
of the political relations which existed, and ought 
to exist between the colonies and the mother coun- 
try. It was in consequence of the composition of 

• Immediately after this event, the British governor, Lord Duns- 
more, entered the House, and spoke as follows: — "Mr. Speaker 
and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses — I have in my hand a 
paper published by order of your House, conceived in such terms as 
reflect highly upon his Majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain, 
•which makes it necessary to dissolve you — and you are dissolved ac- 
cordingly." As usual, the whole assembly repaired immediately to 
the Apollo Hall in the Raleigh Tavern, and resumed their delibera- 
tions. 



OF TUOMAS JEFFERSON. 63 

this pamphlet, that Mr. Jefferson was threatened by 
Lord Dunsmore with a prosecution for treason, and 
his name was included in a list of proscriptions by 
the British ministry, intended for future prosecution 
and punishment. 

Mr. Jefferson was prevented by a sudden attack 
of illness from attending the convention which 
assembled in "Williamsburg in August, 1774. This 
was the first popular or republican legislative assem- 
bly which ever met in Virginia, without the au- 
thority of government, and at the call of the 
popular will. Though absent from its sessions, Mr. 
Jefferson sent his Instructions to Patrick Henry 
and Peyton Randolph, for the jjurpose of having 
them submitted to the convention. A copy was laid 
on the table for the inspection of the members, and 
it was read with much interest. But the measures 
of retaliation and resistance which it proposed were 
thought to be, at that stage of the conflict, too ex- 
treme and excessive. They w^ere therefore not 
adopted ; but they were printed by an order of the 
convention, and were subsequently widely diffused. 
In this production Mr. Jefferson took the ground 
that the relation between the colonies and Great 
Britain was the same as the relation between that 
country and Scotland after the accession of James, 
or between England and Hanover after the acccs- 
6* 



64 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Bion of the reigning house of the latter country to 
the British throne ; that they had the same execu- 
tive chief, hut no other necessar}^ political connec- 
tions ; and that the emigration of English subjects 
to America, gave the British monarch no more right 
over them, than the emigration of the Danes and 
Saxons to England gave to the Danish and Saxon 
monarchs over Englishmen. In substance, there- 
fore, Mr. Jeflerson first announced, in this able do- 
cument, the great republican doctrine that there 
should be no taxation without representation — a 
doctrine afterward more clearly and ably stated by 
him in the Declaration of Independence.* 

The labors of this convention consisted chiefly in 
passing resolutions to the following effect : — I^ot to 
import any British merchandise after the 1st of 
November ensuing ; to import no slaves ; to use no 
more tea ; to purchase no East India goods ; to export 
no more tobacco, but to encourage its home manu- 
facture; to improve the breed of sheep; to contri- 
bute to the relief of the people of Boston ; and that 
the speaker of the convention be empowered to 
convene the members again at such time and place 
us he might think proper. The convention then 
elected delegates to represent the State of Virgnia 

* Vide Girardin's History of Virginia — Appendix, No. 12. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 55 

in the Continental Congress. These men were 
chosen with the care and deliberation which the 
importance of the occasion required. Peyton Ran- 
dolph was selected in consequence of his superior 
acquaintance with the rules of parliamentary pro- 
ceedings. George Washington was recommended 
by his military talents and experience. Richard 
Henry Lee was chosen for his great eloquence; 
Patrick Henry for the same reason ; Edward Pen- 
dleton for his profound learning as a lawyer; Ben- 
jamin Harrison because he represented the wealthy 
planters ; and Richard Bland in consequence of his 
ability as a writer. 

Mr. Jefferson was not elected as a delegate to the 
first Continental Congress; but during the year 
1775 he was not inactive in the legislature of his 
native State. At the request of Peyton Randolph, 
who had been chosen President of Congress, he 
drew up the answer of the General Assembly of 
Virginia to the conciliatory proposals which had 
been made hy Lord North, and which finally passed 
the House, with some softening amendments. Mr. 
Jefferson was subsequently appointed by the house 
to convey to the congress assembled at Philadel- 
phia, the result of their action and deliberations, 
which duty he performed on the 21st of June, 1775. 

Thus far the mental activity and the patriotism 



56 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

of Mr. Jefferson liad been confined in their opera- 
tion to the comparatively limited sphere of hia 
native province. He was still a young man of thirty- 
two years ; yet he had taken an honorable place, by 
virtue of his great talents and acquirements, among 
the leading men of the Old Dominion. In truth, 
he had been the most radical and resolute of the 
reformers in that State, the fiercest foe to British 
tyranny, the most extreme and uncompromising of 
all the patriots. It was he who had declared in the 
Convention of Virginia, which assembled for the 
second time on the 20th of March, 1775, that " by 
the God that made him, he would cease to exist be- 
fore he yielded to such a connection with England, 
and on such terms as the British Parliament pro- 
pose." It was he who had proclaimed that "his 
creed had been formed on unsheathing the sword at 
Lexington." It was he who supported a resolution 
which was proposed in this convention by Patrick 
Henry, that the colony should immediately be put 
in a state of defense, and that a committee be ap- 
pointed to prepare a plan to arm and discipline a 
body of effective troops. This was the daring and 
desperate resolution which was earnestly opposed by 
Pendleton, Harrison, Nicholas, and Wythe — patriots 
of the purest virtue — because they thought it too 
ultra and decisive. But in spite of their opposition 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 57 

this resolution was carried by means of the power- 
ful influence of Jefterson and Patrick Henry, and 
was ultimately executed. But in all these noble 
achievements, the talents and patriotism of Jeffer- 
son had been confined to a comparatively limited 
sphere. A man of such enlightened views, of sucli 
bold determination, of such fierce hostility to des- 
potism, of such devotion to popular freedom, only 
needed a more enlarged and elevated sphere of ac- 
tivity to give him a distinguished place in the 
history of his time and of his country. Such an 
opportunity was soon afforded him ; and it may with 
truth be said that, among all the distinguished men 
of the Kevolution, he who was the bitterest and 
most uncompromising foe to British tyranny and 
prerogative, and he who was most determined, impe- 
tuous and resolved in accomplishing their over- 
throw in these colonies, was none other than Thomas 
Jefferson. 

This fact was especially evinced in his answer to 
the " Conciliatory Propositions" of the British minis- 
ter. Lord North. This document, addressed to the 
colonies, was specious, insidious, and crafty in the 
extreme. But Jefferson, who was appointed on the 
Committee of the House of Burgesses to answer it, 
could not be imposed upon by its artful declamation. 
He penetrated its real character, stript its infamous 



58 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

propositions of their false and fallacious coverings, 
exposed its cruelty and injustice, and gave it a blow 
from which it never recovered. This was the last 
service which Jefierson performed for the cause of 
freedom in his native State. On the 24th of June, 
1775, the House adjourned; and it was the last As- 
sembly which ever convened under the authority of 
the British monarch in the colony of Virginia. The 
governor, fearing an outburst of popular indigna- 
tion, fled from his palace on board a British man- 
of-war, and his authority was never again recog- 
nized by the inhabitants of the colony. This was 
the loss of the first province, which was followed 
subsequently by the defection of the whole conti- 
nent, and by their hostile and triumphant attitude 
against the supremacy of the mother country. 



i 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



i 



CHAPTER in. 

MU. JEFFERSON ELECTKD A MEMBER OF CONGRESS — HIS APPOINTMENT ON 
IMPORTANT COMMITTEES — HIS REPORTS MR. DICKINSON OF PENNSYL- 
VANIA — MR. JEFFERSON PREPARES A CONSTITUTION AND DECLARATION OP 

RIGHTS FOR VIRGINIA THE LEGISLATURE OF VIRGINIA RECOMMENDS A 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — MR. JEFFERSOn's INFLUENCE IN CON- 
GRESS — RESOLUTION OF RICHARD HKNRV LEE — MR. JEFFERSON DRAFTS 
THE ORIGINAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — STATE OP PARTIES IN 
CONGRESS ADOPTION AND PROMULGATION OF THE DECLARATION — EX- 
CITEMENT THROUGHOUT THE COLONIES ON THE SUBJECT LITERARY 

MERITS OF THE DECLARATION — ITS HISTORIC INFLUENCE AND IMPORT- 
ANCE — MR. Jefferson's opinion respecting it — its future influ- 
ence. 

Before the adjournment of the second session of 
the popular convention of Virginia, it became ne- 
cessary for them to elect a delegate to the Continen- 
tal Congress in place of Peyton Randolph, who, as 
speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, would 
soon be required to return to his native State. Ac- 
cordingly in May, 1775, Mr. Jefferson Was elected 
to fill the place of Mr. Randolph ; and on the 21st 
of June he took his seat in the Continental Con- 
gress. He was then thirty-two years of age ; and 
he brought to this high sphere in which he was 
destined afterward to act so eminent and distin- 
guished a part, very considerable reputation for 



60 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

iibilities, industry, and devotion to the cause of free- 
dom and progress. 

' Tliis reputation procured him an appointment on 
the committee instructed to prepare a report on the 
" Cause of taking up Arms against England," five 
days after his entrance into Congress. The portion 
of the report of this committee which Mr. Jefferson 
was requested to prepare, has been frequently 
quoted and admired for its beauty of style, and 
for the clearness and boldness with which it treats 
the subject.* On the 22d of July he was again 
honored with an appointment on a committee with 
Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, and R. H. Lee, to prepare 
an answer to Lord North's resolutions. Mr. Jeffer- 
son penned this important document. It sets forth 
in powerful language the fundamental doctrine that 
the colonies alone have the privilege of granting or 

• Mr. Dickinson of Pennsylvania was a member of this committee, 
and he seems to have been the croaking owl of the Continental Con- 
gress. He opposed all expressions of vigorous resistance, or of 
open denunciation, in the reports of the committees; and it was he 
who, alone of all the members of Congress, subsequently refused 
tu sign the Declaration of Independence. When the committee on 
the "Cause of taking up Arms against England" reported, their re- 
port had been softened down so completely by the trembling appeals 
of Mr. Dickinson, as scarcely to amount to any thing. On its passage 
he remarked, that there was only one word in it of which he yet 
disapproved, and that word was "Congress." Mr. Harrison instantly 
rose and said, that there was but one word in the document of which 
he did approve, and that was "Congress." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 61 

withholding their own money; and that this also 
involves the right of inquiry into its application, of 
determining its amount, and of applying it to proper 
uses ; and it condemns the propositions of Lord 
North, because they do not propose the repeal of 
the oppressive statutes which had been passed. The 
tone and spirit of this report difler very essentially 
from those of the report of the committee to which 
Mr. Dickinson belonged. They were bold, resolute 
and defiant, and marked clearly an important step in 
advance among that immortal baud of patriots who 
were destined to achieve the freedom of the nation. It 
was the passage of this report, written by Mr. Jeffer- 
son, then the youngest member of Congress save 
one, which cut off forever all hope of conciliation 
and union between the colonies and Great Britain. 
From that moment a desperate conflict was inevi- 
table. . 

Mr. Jefferson had been elected to Congress by 
the Legislature of Virginia in August, 1775, and 
subsequently was re-elected in June, 1776. During 
his absence from his native State, he was not forget- 
ful of her interests. The regal authority had been 
already dissolved in that colony. A popular gov- 
ernment had been quietly substituted. But no settled 
form for the administration of the government had 
been adopted. This then was the first task which 
6 



62 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

demanded the attention of her patriots. A conven- 
tion accordingly assembled at Williamsburg, on the 
Gth of May, 1776, for the purpose of adopting a 
declaration of rights and a constitution. On the 
15tli of May, after previous deliberations, a commit- 
tee was appointed to report on the subject. Mr. 
George Mason was the leading member of that com- 
mittee. On the 29th of June the constitution which 
they reported, after ample discussion, was adopted. 
But during this interval Mr. Jeft'erson had not been 
idle. He himself had prepared a form of constitution 
for the consideration of the house, together with a 
preamble, declaration of rights, and an entire plan 
of government. These important documents he sent 
to Mr. Wythe, but they arrived too late for the con- 
sideration of the house. They had already discussed 
and adopted a complete form of government, and 
had agreed upon a declaration of rights. IlTeverthe- 
less some use was made of the valuable labors of 
Mr. Jefferson. Two or three parts of his plan were 
added to that already passed, and the eutire preamble 
which accompanied his own form of government 
was adopted and added to that which had already 
received the legislative sanction. George Mason 
was the author of the declaration of rights. This 
constitution and declaration were unanimously 
adopted on the 29th of June, 1776, and thus was 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 63 

established the first institution of free government, 
by a written compact, which existed in the new 
world. Virginia " was the first of the nations of the 
earth," says Mr. Jefierson, speaking of this event, 
" which assembled its wise men peaceably together 
to form a fundamental constitution, to commit it to 
writing, and place it among their archives, where 
every one should be free to appeal to its text." 

But this session of the cofivention in Virginia is 
rendered remarkable by another act, which possesses 
a national and not a local interest. They passed a 
resolution " that the delegates appointed to represent 
Virginia in General Congress be instructed to pro- 
pose to that respectable body to declare the United 
Colonies free and independeyit States, absolved from 
all allegiance to or dependence on the crown or 
parliament of Great Britain ; and that they give the 
assent of this colony to such declaration, and to 
whatever measures may be thought proper and 
necessary by the Congress for forming foreign alli- 
ances, and a confederation of the colonies, at such 
time and in the manner as to them shall seem best : 
provided that the power of forming governments for, 
and the regulation of, the internal concerns of each 
colony, be left to the respective colonial legislatures." 

Thus rapidly and steadily were the representatives 
of the nation approaching the decisive moment and 



64 THE LIFE AND' TIMES 

the irretrievable deed, which were to decide the fate 
of 80 many millions of human beings. And it must 
])e conceded that, in this perilous and immortal race, 
Mr. Jefferson holds no secondary place. He, though 
one of the youngest members of Congress, though 
he had much at stake, though he could not be un- 
mindful of the many and great dangers which clus- 
tered around his path, yet he did not hesitate. He 
was unquestionably the boldest, most determined, 
and most radical member of the national representa- 
tion. Others pulled back, hesitated, and deprecated 
baste and rashness. He constantly urged forward, 
endeavored to inflame the minds of his associates 
with extreme hostility to England, and with uncon- 
querable resolution to overthrow her supremacy in 
the colonies. Accordingly, on the 28th of May, 1776, 
he moved in Congress that "an animated address 
be published to impress the minds of the people 
with the necessity of now stepping forward to save 
their country, their freedom, and their property." 
He was appointed chairman of this committee; and 
he prepared an address whose temper and spirit 
were in accordance with this resolution, and which 
was admirably adapted to prepare the way for the 
grand and decisive step which was about to follow. 
As soon aa the delegates from Virginia received 
the instructions of the legislature of that State, in 



OF THOMAS .IKFFERSON, G5 

reference to making a declaration of national free- 
dom, they prepared to execute them. Richard 
Ilonrj Lee was the oldest aud the most eloquent 
member of the Virginia delegation. Accordingly it 
fell to his lot to perform this responsible and honor- 
able duty ; and on the 7th of June, 1776, he rose in 
Congress, then sitting in the State House in the 
city of Philadelphia, and moved that " Congress 
should declare that these United States are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent states ; that 
they are absolved from all allegiance to the British 
crown ; that all political connection between them 
and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be 
totally dissolved ; that measures should be imme- 
diately taken for procuring the assistance of foreign 
powers, and that a confederation be formed to bind 
the colonies more closely together. 

The consideration of this resolution was postponed 
until the next day. It was then taken up and de- 
bated for several successive days. Messrs. Adams, R. 
II. Lee, Wythe, Jefterson, and others, were in favor 
of the resolution. Messrs. Wilson, Robert Livings- 
ton, Rutledge and Dickinson opposed it. All the 
arguments of the latter gentlemen, however, except 
as a matter of course those of Mr. Dickinson, applied 
only to the most suitable period of passing such a 
6* 



66 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

resolution, and not to the abstract propriety or neces- 
sity of the act. 

As unanimity of sentiment on the subject did not 
seem then to prevail, it was deemed advisable to 
postpone a final vote on the resolution until the Ist 
of July, but a committee was appointed in the 
meantime to prepare a document which might be 
appropriate to the purpose contemplated. At this 
crisis Mr. Lee received information of the danger- 
ous illness of a member of his family. He was com- 
pelled immediately to leave Congress, and could not 
serve upon the committee which was about to be 
a2:)poiuted, nor act as its chairman, as he would 
have been entitled to do as the mover of the resolu- 
tion. A committee was then selected by the house, 
which chose the following persons : John Adams, 
Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, 
and Thomas Jefferson. As Mr. Jefferson had re- 
ceived the highest number of votes, he was appointed 
president of the committee, and thus was the prepa- 
ration of the most illustrious and important state 
paper of all ages entrusted to his hands. After its 
preparation it was submitted privately to the exami- 
nation of Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams. They 
made a few minor alterations, and then it was 
examined befo're the whole committee. It received 
their unanimous approval, and on Friday, the 28th 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 67 

of June, Mr. Jefferson reported it to Congress. It 
was read, and then ordered to lie on the table.* 

On the 1st of Jnly the house resolved itself into a 
committee of the whole, and resumed the discussion 
of the preliminary question, whether a declaration 
of independence should be made. After a long 
debate this question was carried in the affirmative. 
All the States represented in Congress voted in its 
favor, except Pennsylvania and South Carolina. 
Delaware was represented by only two members, 
and as they were divided in sentiment, her vote was 
indecisive. The delegates from New York requested 
permission to withdraw, in consequence of the fact 
that they had received no instructions from their 
constituents on the subject. The final vote on the 
resolution was taken on the 2d of July. On this 
ballot South Carolina voted affirmatively ; an addi- 
tional delegate had arrived from Delaware, which 
gave the voice of that State in the same way ; the 
representatives of New York had received instruc- 
tions to give their influence in favor of the measure 
and Pennsylvania had happily changed some of her 
representatives during the interval. A unanimous 
vote was therefore obtained at last in favor of the 
original motion, to declare the colonies independent 
of British rule. 

Much more difficulty was experienced when the 
discussion of the Declaration itself which the com- 



68 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

mittee had prepared, came before the house. Great 
violence and intense excitement prevailed. Every 
clause and every expression were rigidly criticised. 
Every sentiment uttered and every principle announ- 
ced were fiercely combatted and assailed. Ilich by 
inch was the great battle fought, on the issue of 
which depended such vital and inestimable interests. 
The clause condemning the slave trade was struck 
out in accordance with the peremptory demands of 
South Carolina and Georgia. The whole amount 
which was eventually erased, equalled one-third of 
the original composition. The battle raged for 
three days, during which the most intense excite- 
ment prevailed. John Adams especially distin- 
guished himself by his eloquent support of the 
document in its unaltered state. Mr. Jefferson, 
thirty-seven years afterward described Mr. Adams as 
having been a colossus on the floor of the house on 
this great occasion, and in debate powerful and 
convincing in the highest degree. It became evident 
that it would only be by a spirit of compromise that 
unanimity could finally be obtained. In eflecting 
these compromises, several of the best passages of 
this remarkable production were erased.* 

• In the Appendix the reader will f nd the Declaration in its origi- 
nal form, with the changes and emendations which were introduced 
into it, before its final adoption. A difference of opinion may well 
exist as to whether much or even any advantage was derived from 
the expurgating process through which it passed. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 69 

The Declaration as thus amended in committee 
of the whole was reported to the house on the 4th 
of July. On this day it was adopted, and signed by 
every member then present, excepting one. The 
recusant was the pusillanimous member from Penn- 
sylvania, Mr. Dickinson. Other representatives, 
who happened on that day to be absent, appended 
their signatures at subsequent periods. On the 20th 
of July Pennsylvania elected five new representa- 
tives, omitting Mr. Dickinson from the number, and 
all of these subsequently signed. The ignominious 
eminence of being the only person in the whole 
Continental Congress w^ho shrank from the glory 
and the danger of giving his influence in favor of 
this immortal declaration, belongs to the discarded 
representative from Pennsylvania. On the 19th of 
July it was ordered to be engrossed ; and on the 2d 
of August, after having been carefully compared and 
verified by the original, the parchment was again 
signed with all those whose names wore appended to 
the manuscript copy. 

Thus was consummated the most memorable 
event of modern times ; an event, the influence of 
which on the destinies of the world in all climes, 
has exceeded in importance that of any other event, 
and wliich through all coming ages will be the subject 
of consrratulation to countless millions of freemen. 



70 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

It would be difficult to find among tlie most re- 
nowned and felicitous productions of the human 
intellect, one which has higher claims to admiration 
than this Declaration. Its chief merit consists in its 
admirable adaptation to the purpose for which it was 
intended. It is indeed remarkable for the polish 
and beauty of its language, for its clearness and 
force of expression. But its directness, its compre- 
hensiveness, and its condensation of thought are 
higher merits still. Within the narrow compass to 
v/hich it is necessarily confined, it utters volumes 
of ponderous and unanswerable truth. It is a sin- 
gular and admirable combination of argument, of 
pathos, of vindication, and of invective. It is pa- 
thetic enough to enlist the warmest sympathies of 
the reader, and it is argumentative enough to con- 
vince his reason. It is not more pathetic than is 
necessary, lest its authors might seem to have been 
defective in argument ; and it is not too argumenta- 
tive, lest a suspicion might be excited that its authors 
were conscious that the weakness of their cause 
required an elaborate defense. Its style is declama- 
tory, but not sufficiently so as to render it vulgar or 
undignified ; while at the same time its manly dig- 
nity does not degenerate into haughtiness. Had it 
been more condensed, it might have become either 
obscure or flippant. Had it been more expanded, it 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 71 

might have lost in vigor and directness. The very 
best evidence which can be adduced in favor of its 
claims to admiration and approval, is the universal 
judgment which the civilized world has passed upon 
its merits. The highest encomium which can be 
bestowed upon it, is to assert that it is a production 
worthy of the memorable occasion with which it 
was connected, and whose matchless glories it aided 
so effectually to increase and to perpetuate. Had 
Jefferson accomplished nothing more during his 
long life of eighty-three years than elaborate this 
immortal document, he would have deserved to be 
held in honorable remembrance for ages to come ; 
and having accomplished this noble task, it is ven- 
turing nothing to say that his name will be forever 
rescued from the common oblivion, and will be 
numbered among the bright catalogue of the world's 
greatest heroes until the latest period of recorded 
time. 

On the 8th of July the Declaration of Independ- 
ence was publicly promulgated in Philadelphia, and 
rapidly the glorious news of its adoption spread 
through the whole country. It was received with 
transports of joy by many millions, and throughout 
the whole length and breadth of the continent a 
universal frenzy of delight prevailed. The declara- 
tion was published in New York on the 11th, in 



72 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

presence of the American army there assembled ; 
and was greeted with the utmost pomp and splendor 
of military pageantry. When the news arrived in 
Boston, the public excitement became unparalleled. 
All the civil authorities, the military, and a vast 
multitude assembled in front of the Capitol, whei"e 
the document was read, and was received with 
the most enthusiastic plaudits. An immense ban- 
quet was afterwani given, at which innumerable 
toasts were drank in praise of liberty, and in denun- 
ciation of tyrants. During the ensuing night every 
ensign of royalty, and every badge of kingly power 
which existed in Boston, was defaced and removed. 

Similar scenes occurred throughout all the colo- 
nies. In A'irginia the name of the king was erased 
by an act of the legislature from the liturgy of the 
established religion. All the Emblems of the fallen 
monarchy were at once obliterated ; and a new coat 
of arms was ordered for the rising commonwealth, 
just then emerging from chaos into a vigorous and 
splendid existence. This commendable example 
was followed in all the remaining States. The 
declaration seemed to have inspired new life into 
the hearts of patriots, and to have steeped the spirits 
of the minions of despotism in despair. 

Mr. Jefferson was Ininself fully conscious of the 
importance of the event wlaoh had just taken place, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 73 

and of tlie liii2;li (liii'iiity ol" the dnunii in wliich lie 
luul acted 80 prominent a part. He regarded the proc- 
lamation of the declaration of American independ- 
ence an tlie great ytarting point in the race for frecilom 
in modern times; as the initial step in the emanci- 
])ation ol'all civili/od nations from the supremacy and 
the outrages of despots. It was in his judgment the 
first chapter in a glorious history. It was the sum- 
mons which spoke in thunder-tones to the cringing 
millions who were yet slumbering in the dark night 
and gloom of tyranny, inviting them to arouse, to 
shake off their shackles, to assert their long plundered 
rights, and their dignity as men, and to achieve 
their liberties. Nor were these anticipations disap- 
pointed. The noble example thus set before the 
world was not lost. The leaven soon began to work 
vigorously in the mighty nuiss of humanity. France 
was the first nation to follow this example ; but she 
followed it after a fashion of her own, and her en- 
deavors were marked by the peculiarities of the 
national character. To the declaration of American 
indepondonce may justly be attributed, as their ulti- 
nuite and original cause, all the revolutionary move- 
ments which have since occurred, with such various 
successes and with such conllicting and dissimilar 
incidents, in I\)lan(l, in Italy, in Hungary, in Spain, 
in CTcrmany, and in CV'utral ami JScuithern America. 
7 



7i THE LIFE AND TIMES 

And it is scarcely hazarding too much to say, that 
the potent influence of the example given and of 
the principles inculcated hy this declaration, will 
continue to operate until republican freedom and 
republican governments will replace all the rotten 
thrones and despotic institutions which now afliict 
and disgrace the world. Snch is the inherent and 
unconquerable power of truth ! 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 75 



CHAPTER IV. 

MR. JEFFERSON DECLINES A RE-ELECTION TO CONGRESS — RESULTS OP HIS 
LABORS IN CONGRESS — APPOINTED COMMISSIONER TO FRANCE — HE DE- 
CLINES — HE TAKES HIS SEAT IN THE LEGISLATURE OP VIRGINIA — HE 
PROPOSES A LAW FOR THE REORGANIZATION OF THE COURTS OF JUSTICE 
— HE PROPOSES A LAW FOR THE ABOLITION OF ENTAILS — HE PROPOSES A 
BILL TO OVERTHROW THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN VIRGINIA — FIERCE 

CONFLICTS WHICH ENSUED THE FINAL RESULT JEFPERSOn'S ULTIMATE 

TRIUMPH — ESTABLISHMENT OF ABSOLUTE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN VIR- 
GINIA — MR. JEFFERSON OBTAINS THE PASSAGE OF A LAW ABOLISHING 
THE FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE IN VIRGINIA — HISTORY OF THAT REFORM IN 
FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 

Mr. Jefferson's term of service in the Continen- 
tal Congress expired on the 11th of August, 1776. 
Before the arrival of that period he had notified the 
convention of Virginia that he declined a re-elec- 
tion. Nevertheless that body chose to act contrary 
to his wishes, and he was again unanimously re- 
elected. This result did not alter his own purpose, 
and he again wrote to the chairman of the conven- 
tion, resigning positively the proffered honor. Two 
causes induced him at this period to withdraw from 
the national councils. One of these was the neces- 
sity which existed that he should attend to his 
private affairs at home. But the chief reason was 
a desire to participate in the formation of the new 



76 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

constitution and government wliieli were about to 
be formed and adopted in Virginia. Says he: "The 
new government in Virginia was now organized, a 
meeting of the legislature was to be held in Octo- 
ber, and I had been elected a member by my 
county. I knew that our legislation, under the royal 
government, had many very vicious points which 
urgently required reformation; and I thought I 
could be of more use in forwarding that work. I 
therefore retired from my seat in Congress." On the 
2d of September, 1776, Mr. Harrison, his successor, 
arrived at Philadelphia, and Jefferson immediately 
returned to Virginia. The period of his actual 
presence in the national councils had been only nine 
months ; and yet at the early age of thirty-three he 
had taken the first rank among the leading patriots 
of the colonies ; he had led their opinions and 
moulded their measures ; and he had impressed the 
stamp of his genius and of his principles upon the 
great title deeds and symbols of the nation's rights 
and liberties. 

On the 30th of September he received another 
evidence of the confidence with which he had in- 
spired the members of the Continental Congress. 
They appointed him a joint-commissioner to France, 
with Dr. Franklin and Silas Dean, to negotiate 
treaties of alliance and commerce with that s:overn- 



OF TUOMAS JEFFEilSON. 77 

meut. This was a trust of the greatest importance 
to the interests of the nation ; and yet so earnest 
was the desire of Mr. Jefferson to superintend and 
assist in the estabhshment of the new government 
and constitution of his native State, that lie ao-ain 
declined an honorable appointment which would 
have interfered with the realization of his wishes on 
that subject. 

We have now reached that period in the life and 
labors of Mr. Jefierson when he ceases to be an ex- 
ponent and representative of national measures, and 
assumes the attitude of the founder of a new and 
distinct school of politics; and wdien he began the 
proposal and defense of doctrines which have not 
unjustly won for him the epithet of the '■'■ Fatlccr of 
Aynerican Democracy.'' This course, it will be seen, 
he consistently pursued throughout the many years 
of high official position which marked his subse- 
quent life. 

Mr. Jefierson took his seat in the Legislature of 
Virginia on the 7th of October, 1776. Five days 
afterward he moved for leave to introduce a bill for 
the reorganization and establishment of the courts 
of justice. He was appointed chairman of the 
committee to whom the matter was referred; and 
he drew up an ordinance, which he submitted to 
the committee. They approved of all its provisions. 
7* 



78 THE LIFE A'SD TIMES 

It was til en reported to the house, by whom, after 
a thorough and careful examination, and the intro- 
duction of a few unimportant changes, it was unani- 
mously adopted. 

The provisions of the law prepared by Mr. Jefler- 
son possess the qualities of simplicity, symmetry, 
and the spirit and form of republicanism. But in 
addition to these it could also claim the merit of 
great originality; for although a similar arrange- 
ment exists in the judicial institutions of other 
States at the present time, that proposed by Mr. 
Jefierson was the model after which they have all 
been drawn and executed. He divided the State 
into counties, and devised three courts of ascending 
grades, called the County, the Superior, and the 
Supreme Courts. The jurisdictions of these courts, 
and their relative number, were found admirably 
adapted to meet all the wants of the community. 
He gave new prominence and importance to the 
trial by jury, as the great bulwark of the rights of 
the people. He ordained that in all questions of 
law and of fact combined, as well as in all pure 
questions of fact, the reference to a jury was made 
imperative and unavoidable in the courts of law ; 
and he would have carried this principle also into 
the Courts of Chancery, had he not, in this move- 
ment, been opposed and defeated by the efforts of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. T9 

Edmund Pendleton, the ablest lawyer in the State, 
who was opposed to the extreme measures of popular 
reform introduced by Mr. Jefferson. The chief fea- 
tures of the law on this subject, as proposed by Mr. 
Jefferson, remain in force in Virginia till the present 
day. 

On the 1 2th October Mr. Jefferson continued his 
labors by introducing a bill for the abolition of the 
law of entails in Virginia. This was a measure of 
much greater importance than the preceding one. 
It was a desiderate and destructive blow struck 
directly at the aristocratic order in that State. No- 
where else on the continent had the lines of demar- 
cation between the higher and the lower ranks, be- 
tween the gentle and the vulgar, between the 
exclusive and the popular, been drawn with so 
much distinctness as in the Old Dominion. Aud 
that distinction was based not simply on differences 
of education, birth, and breeding; but also on the 
more unpopular one of the possession of wealth. 
The State having been settled at an early period 
by a body of men who had embraced the privileges 
granted them of taking vast tracts of the free do- 
main of nature — these estates had become immensely 
valuable with the progress of time; and in accord- 
ance with the English law of entail, they had been 
devised from generation to generation in fee-tail to 



80 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

the eldest sou of the family. This aristocratic trans- 
mission of estates had gradually created a body of 
men who formed a patrician order in the State, 
whose wealth, luxury, and expensive and ostenta- 
tious establishments were little in harmony with the 
simplicity of republican manners. Together with 
the possession of the land, this class of men gradu- 
ally absorbed all the political power, which only 
increased the evil, and rendered the state of things 
more obnoxious to the friends of liberty and re- 
form. 

If this aristocratic class of the community were 
useless to the State, the other existing orders of 
society in Virginia were such, that some of them 
invited, and others of them demanded, a reforma- 
tion on this subject. Next below the great land- 
owners, in the social and political scale, were the 
class known as "half-breeds." These were the de- 
scendants of the younger sons and daughters of the 
aristocrats, who inherited the pride without the wealth 
or the influence of their ancestors. Below these asain 
were the upstarts, or pretenders, who were usually 
men of talent, and having obtained wealth by means 
of tlieir superior enterprise and abilities, were de- 
sirous of separating themselves from the class in 
which they were born and to which they originally be- 
longed, and of imitating the manners and habits of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 81 

the aristocracy, and if possible to obtain admission 
to tbeir society. Below these again M^ere the plain, 
substantial yeomen, who were industrious, simple, 
frugal, who knew nothing and cared less about 
aristocratic splendor, rank, or wealth, and whose 
whole attention was confined to the cultivation of 
the small farms which they possessed, or to their 
mechanical trades. Below all these again, and the 
vilest of the race, were the class of persons termed 
" overseers," who tyrannized over the slaves, who 
were the most cringing of human beings to their 
superiors, and most the tyrannical to their subordi- 
nates and victims. 

By abolishing the law of entails in Virginia, Mr. 
Jefferson destroyed the entire fabric of this social 
structure; for the whole of it gradually grew up 
around, and in consequence of that institution. His 
purpose was also to open the way for an aristocracy 
of intellect and talent, as being more in accordance 
with the spirit of a republic. And although this 
measure was resisted with the utmost violence by 
the representatives of the aristocratic order in the 
legislature, led on by men of the highest ability — 
such as Edmund Pendleton and John Robinson, the 
measure was finally adopted. Entails were abol- 
ished, and a law passed by which real estate, as well 
as personal property was distributed, on the death 



82 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

of the possessor in equitable proportions among the 
whole of his children. Mr. Jefferson also subse- 
quently introduced another bill, which rendered this 
reform complete, which destroyed the preference 
given to the male over the female sex, and to the 
eldest child over the younger children.* 

After accomplishing this great republican move- 
ment, which gave a new appearance and form to the 
secular and material interests of the State, Mr. Jef- 

* Mr. Jefferson describes his labors in reference to this event in 
the following language : 

"On the 12th, I obtained leave to bring in a bill declaring tenants 
in tail to hold their lands in fee simple. In the earlier times of the 
colony, when lands were to be obtained for little or nothing, some 
provident individuals procured large grants; and desirous of found- 
ing great families for themselves, settled them on their descendants in 
fee tail. The transmission of this property from generation to gene- 
ration, in the same name, raised up a distinct set of families, who 
being privileged bg law in the perpetuation of their wealth, were thus 
formed into a patrician order, distinguished by the splendor and lux- 
ury of their establishments. From this order, too, the king habitu- 
ally selected his counselors of state; the hope of which distinction 
devoted the whole corps to the interests and will of the crown. To 
annul this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more 
harm and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for the 
aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for 
the direction of the interests of society, and scattered with equal 
hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a well- 
ordered republic. To effect it, no violence was necessary, no depri- 
vation of natural right, but rather an enlargement of it, by a repeal 
of the law. For this would authorize the present holder to divide 
the property among his children equally, as his affections were 
divided ; and would place them, by natural generation, on the level 
of their fellow-citizens." 



OF TIIOMAT. JlirFEnPON. 83 

ferson directed his attention to the religious rela- 
tions and interests of the community. He intro- 
duced a bill to abolish the church establishment in 
Virginia, and to place all religious sects on an equal 
footing. 

The establishment of the Church of England in 
Virginia had taken place at the period of the first 
immigration thither. The charter granted to Sir "Wal- 
ter Raleigh contained an express clause, which pro- 
vided that the laws of the new colony to be founded 
by him, should in no respect militate against the 
true Christian faith as then professed by the Church 
of England, and established by law in the realm. 
At an early day the colony had been divided into 
parishes, and in each parish a minister had been 
settled, a church built, a glebe and parsonage as- 
signed, and a support provided for the incumbent 
from the proceeds of a specified amount of tobacco. 
Schismatics were severely punished. It was a penal 
offense in parents to prevent their children from 
being baptized by the minister of the established 
church. The assembling of Quakers was forbidden 
by law; and they had been ordered to leave the 
State, with the penalty of death if they returned. 
In 1705, a law had been passed to the effect that he 
who denied the truth of the Christian religion, or 
the existence of the trinity, or the inspiration of 



g4 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

the Scriptures, should be incapable of holding any 
office, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, and should 
further suffer three years' imprisonment. Even 
the Declaration of Rights, passed in 1776, had 
not abolished and obliterated these infamous enact- 
ments; although the legislature, in that year, had 
been overflowed with the most urgent petitions 
from thousands of respectable and influential citi- 
zens asking their repeal. In the progress of the 
several centuries which preceded this date, the 
morals of the established clergy had become a by- 
word and a disgrace to the Christian name. They 
were, in the majority of instances drunken, idle and 
debauched. Numerous dissenters of intellio-ence, 
piety, and wealth had gradually immigrated into the 
State ; and at the period of Mr. Jefterson's activity 
in the legislature, they formed an important portion 
of the community. The Presbyterians especially 
had attained a high position in point of importance, 
wealth and social influence, in many portions of the 
commonwealth. 

With this large class of citizens the labors of Mr. 
Jcfterson met with much favor. They supported 
him with numerous petitions to the legislature. The 
opposing faction, long secure in its prerogatives, 
and undisturbed in its domination, awoke from its 
lethargy, fiercely fought against the project of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 85 

chango, and presented numerous memorials against 
tlie proposed reforms. Many arguments were urged 
by the supporters of the established religion, the 
most cogent of which was that the Episcopal clergy 
had entered on their livings with the understanding, 
on the part of the government, that they should 
hold them for life ; and that, though the form of 
government had been changed, yet the tenure of 
these rights was as sacred as that by which the citi- 
zens held their private property. 

The conflict between the advocates of conserva- 
tism and 'progress in the legislature was violent in 
the extreme. Mr. Jefferson describes them as hav- 
ing been the most furious in which he had ever 
engaged. Nor were the efforts of his opponents 
without effect ; for so vigorous was their resistance 
that they compelled him to change his position from 
the absolute to the partial abolition of the establish- 
ment. He eventually succeeded in obtaining the 
passage of a law, which removed the penalty which 
had formerly been inflicted for maintaining irreli- 
gious opinions, for refusing to attend church, and 
for the exercise of any other than the established 
Biode of religious worship. He also obtained the 
exemption of dissenters from contributing to the 
support of the established church. But Mr. Jeft'erson 
8 



86 TTTE LIFE ANT) TTJIES 

WITS not a man to yield in the full accompUsliment 
of his purposes, to any degree of opposition. He 
accordingly persisted in his endeavors for three suc- 
cessive years, until at last, by unwearied exertions, 
he succeeded in attaining his end in the final passage 
of a law which enacted that no general assessment 
should be established by law, on any one, either for 
the support of the Church of England, or for that of 
other sects ; but that every one should be permitted 
to exercise his own free will in reference to the 
maintenance of any form of religious service. The 
passage of this law not only overthrew the power 
of the Church of England in Virginia, but it esta- 
blished religious liberty on the fullest and largest 
basis. It is true that he was at that time not a 
member of the legislature, but the governor of the 
State ; yet it was well understood that the final 
triumph of the measure was secured through his 
influence, by his assistance, and in accordance with 
his wishes. 

The next measure of reform proposed by Mr. 
Jefierson had reference to the slave-trade. His 
opinions on this important subject were that the 
emancipation of the slaves, accompanied with their 
colonization, was practicable. But his efforts at this 
period were not directed to the attainment of this 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 87 

result ; for he undoubtedly perceived that the period 
for the accomplishment of so radical a measure had 
not yet arrived. But he proposed a law abolishing 
the foreign slave-trade ; and in the attainment of 
this result he was eminently useful and successful ; 
a law making the foreign slave-trade piracy having 
finally passed the legislature in 1778. 

The honor of having led the van in this great re- 
form, among all the nations of the earth, belongs to 
Virginia ; and the honor of having proposed and 
accomplished this result in Virginia belongs to Mr. 
Jefferson. The praise of priority in this matter 
has long been claimed for Mr. Wilberforce, and for 
Great Britain ; but the claim is unjust. It was in 
1791 that Mr. Wilberforce introduced his bill to 
abolish the Foreign Slave Trade into the English 
parliament. He failed in carrying his motion 
through both branches of the legislature, during 
fourteen successive years ; until he triumphed at 
last on the 25th of March, 1807. In March, 1792, 
Denmark passed a similar law, interdicting the slave- 
trade on the part of Danish subjects after January, 
1803. Sweden passed a similar law in 1813 ; N'eth- 
erland in 1814. Bonaparte forbade the traffic in 1815. 
Spain followed with a prohibitory decree in 1816, 
to take effect in 1820 ; and Portugal did the same in 
1828. Thus it appears that the credit of leading the 



88 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

way iu this great and beneficent revolution belongs 
to Virginia, acting under the promptings and guid- 
ance of Thomas Jefierson ; inasmuch as her statute 
on the subject was passed, and went into full and 
permanent operation iu 1778, and consequently long 
prior to any of the rest. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 89 



CHAPTER V. 

PROPOSITION TO CODIFY THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA — A COMMITTEE APPOINTED 
FOR THE PURPOSE — MR. JEFPERSON's PORTION OF THE TASK — CHANGES 
IN THE LAW OF DESCENTS — CHANGES IN THE CRIMINAL LAW — MEETING OP 
THE COMMITTEE — THEIR REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE LEADING RE- 
FORMS INTRODUCED BY MR. JEFFERSON INTO THE CODE — RELIGIOUS 

FREEDOM ABOLITION OP SLAVERY GENERAL SYSTEM OP EDUCATION 

THE CAPTIVE ARMY OP BURGOYNE QUARTERED AT CHARLOTTESVILLE — 
POPULAR EXCITEMENT — USEFUL AND BENEVOLENT ACTIVITY OP JEFFER- 
SON IN REFERENCE TO THE CAPTIVES. 

Mr. Jefferson deserves to occupy the first place 
among the eminent men who have labored to repub 
licanize the institutions of America, both those of 
the Federal government and those of the States. 
Having succeeded in introducing those important 
reforms into Virginia which have been described in 
the foregoing chapter, he proceeded on the 24th of 
October, 1776, to introduce a bill providing for the 
appointment of a committee of five persons, who 
should prepare a new code of laws for the govern- 
ment of the State, by revising, altering, amending, 
and repealing what already existed, or by adding 
new enactments thereto. This measure was in sub- 
stance providing for the erection of an entirely new 
system of laws in the Slate, and the total destruction 



90 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

of the civil, political, and religious institutions of 
the past. 

The committee appointed by the joint ballot of 
both houses of the legislature to perform this im- 
portant task, were Mr. Jefferson as chairman, Ed- 
mund Pendleton, George "Wythe, George Mason, 
and Thomas Ludwell Lee. So important were the 
duties entrusted to this committee supposed to be, 
that the legislature excused Mr. Wythe from his 
attendance in Congress, in order to enable him to 
perform the more responsible labors which devolved 
upon him as a member of this committee. The 
committee appointed their first meeting at Frede- 
ricksburg on the ensuing 13th of January, for the 
purpose of making a distribution of the respective 
portions of their onerous work. 

When the committee met, the arrangement which 
was adopted threw the most difficult and laborious 
portion of the work on the shoulders of Mr. Jeffer- 
son. To him was committed the codification of the 
Common Law and of the British statutes down to 
the period of James L, when a separate legislature 
was first introduced into Virginia. The same stat- 
utes from the reign of James L to the then existing 
period were committed to Mr. Wythe. The statutes 
of Virginia already in existence were consigned to 
Mr. Pendleton. The two remaining members of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 91 

the committee resigned without taking any share in 
the work, on the ground that they were not lawyers, 
and therefore not competent to the duties wliich 
would have devolved upon them. No substitutes 
were ever appointed in their place ; and the whole 
of this immense labor was performed, in about two 
years, by the three remaining members of the com- 
mittee. 

The department of criminal law and the law of 
descents both fell within the range of Mr. Jefferson's 
task ; and he embraced the opportunity thus afford- 
ed to impress upon both, the peculiar sentiments 
which he entertained on those subjects. In speaking 
of his labors in a letter to Mr. Wythe, in November, 
1778, he said : " In style I have aimed at accuracy, 
brevity and simplicity, preserving however the very 
words of the established law, whether their meaning 
had been sanctioned by judicial decisions or ren- 
dered technical by usage. The same matter, if 
couched in modern statutory language, with all its 
tautologies, redundancies, and circumlocutions, 
would have spread itself over many pages, and been 
unintellio^ible to those whom it concerns." When 
re-enacting English statutes he took care not to 
change their ancient diction, lest he should give 
rise to new disputes by introducing new phraseology; 



92 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

at tlie same time avoiding all useless amplificatioD 
of language. 

In regard to the criminal law, Mr. Jefferson 
adopted the fundamental rule to recommend penal- 
ties not repugnant to benevolence, to abolish the bar- 
barous remains of ancient usages and punishments, 
and to inflict death only for the crimes of murder 
and treason. At that period the penal code of Eng- 
land affixed the penalty of death to two hundred 
diflerent offenses. The humanity therefore which. 
Mr. Jefferson recommended was at that time the 
more remarkable, as it was so far in advance of the 
age in which he lived. 

The changes which he introduced into the law of 
descents were radical and extreme. He proposed to 
abolish the law of primogeniture, and to make real 
estate heritable in equal partition by the next of kin, 
as personal property already was by the statute of 
distribution. This project, which harmonized with 
the acts of the legislature already adopted on the 
subject, was violently opposed by Mr. Pendleton, 
who was also one of the committee ; but Mr. Jeffer- 
son persisted in his purpose, and introduced this 
reform fully and prominently into the new code. 

After the continued labors of two years the com- 
mittee assembled in February, 1779, at Williams- 
burg, to review, approve, and consolidate their 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 93 

respective labors into one general and complete 
report. Day after day the several parts were read, 
examined, criticised, altered, amended and confirm- 
ed according to the decision of the majority of the 
committee. They had embodied in their labors all 
the Common Law, all the British statutes, and all 
the existing laws of Virginia ; and had condensed 
this vast mass of jurisprudence into a single printed 
folio volume of ninety pages only, comprising one 
hundred and twenty-six bills. 

On the 18th of June, 1779, the committee of 
revision reported the results of their labors to the 
general assembly. These were not adopted in a 
mass, but single portions were taken up from time 
to time, discussed and approved. It was not till 
1785, after the conclusion of the llevolutionary war, 
that the whole code had received the sanction of 
law. The peculiar and most remarkable principles 
which Mr. Jefferson elaborated, and incorporated 
into this code, were important in the highest degree, 
and indicate the great originality and boldness of 
his views. In addition to the repeal of the law of 
entails which he introduced into the code, and the 
abrogation of the law of primogeniture, together 
with the equal division of inheritances among 
children, he asserted the right of expatriation, or a 
republican definition of the terms on which aliens 



94 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

may become citizens, and citizens may make them- 
selves aliens. He also proposed the establishment 
of religious equality and liberty upon the broadest 
foundation. He advised the emancipation of all the 
slaves born in Virginia after the passage of the act, 
and their colonization or deportation at a proper age. 
This measure was entirely stricken out by the legis- 
lature. He recommended the abolition of capital 
j)unishment in all cases except treason and murder; 
and the graduation of all other punishments upon 
the principle of humanity and reason. He devised 
the establishment of a systematic plan of general 
education, reaching to all classes of the citizens, and 
adapted to every grade of capacity. This portion 
of his labors was not carried into effect by the legis- 
lature; 

The act providing for the establishment of relig- 
ious freedom is the most remarkable and praisewor- 
thy of air Mr. Jefferson's productions, except the 
Declaration of Independence ; and it exhibits the 
largeness and liberality of his views in the most 
impressive manner. It was the work which stood 
second in the author's own estimation of all his 
labors ; and he proudly ordered that a reference to 
it should be inscribed upon his tombstone. And yet 
it was with very considerable difficulty that he suc- 
'ceeded in obtaining its passage by the legislature. 



OF THOMAS JEFFEP.F^ON. 95 

That portion however of Mr. Jefferson's labors aa 
a codifier in which he took the greatest interest, 
which met with the fiercest opposition, and in the 
establishment of which he was totally defeated, had 
reference to the domestic slave-trade. He himself 
declared that on that subject he could scarcely write 
or speak temperately. His proposed law provided 
that after a certain period all negroes born in the 
State should be free, and afterward at an adult age 
be transported to some foreign colony. As his 
opinions on this subject are of great interest and 
importance, the following extract from his own 
writings are quoted. It was penned at the age of 
Beventy-seven, and shows that the progress of many 
years had made no change in his sentiments. Says 
he : " The principles of the amendment, however, 
were agreed on in the committee, that is to say, the 
freedom of all born after a certain day, and depor- 
tation at a proper age. But it was found that the 
public mind would not yet bear the proposition, nor 
will it bear it even at this day, (1821.) Yet the day 
is not distant when it must bear and adopt it, or 
worse will follow. Nothing is more certainly written 
in the book of fate than that these people are to be free; 
nor is it less certain, that the two races, equally free, 
cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit 
and opinion, have drawn indelible lines of distinc- 



96 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

tion between them. It is still in our power to direct 
the process of emancipation and deportation, peace- 
ably, and in such slow degree, as that the evil will 
wear off insensibly, and their place be, pari passu, 
filled up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, 
it is left to force itself on, human nature must shud- 
der at the prospect held up. We should in vain 
look for an example in the Spanish deportation or 
deletion of the Moors. This precedent would fall 
far short of our case." 

The bill providing for the introduction of a gene- 
ral system of education contains three prominent 
and remarkable divisions. It proposed the estab- 
lishment of elementary schools throughout the 
State, for all children generally, without distinction 
of rich or poor. It recommended the erection of 
colleges, or more properly speaking, of academies 
in each district, to impart a middle range of instruc- 
tion. It advised the creation and endowment of a 
general university, wherein the highest and ultimate 
grade of instruction should be given. An addition 
which he added to this bill called for the establish- 
ment of a public library, and a gallery for the exhi- 
bition of paintings and sculptures. The first portion 
only of the bill, providing for the establishment of 
elementary schools, received the approbation of the 
legislature. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 97 

Having concluded his labors as a codifier, and 
having obtained the authority of law for a large 
portion of his bills, Mr. Jefferson's agency as a 
legislator for the present ceased. Nor should it be 
forgotten that these elaborate researches were carried 
on, and these legislative reforms were effected, at a 
period when the whole country, and Virginia par- 
ticularly, was convulsed by the vicissitudes of a 
desperate, protracted and uncertain conflict. The 
storms of the revolutionary war were then raging, 
and many dark and gloomy hours harassed the 
spirit of this faithful and devoted servant of the 
popular interests and supremacy. But none of these 
things diverted his attention from the important 
task which he had assumed. To this day the laws, 
legislation and jurisprudence of Virginia bear upon 
their front the deep and ineffaceable impress of the 
master mind and the indefatigable industry of Tho- 
mas Jefferson. 

In January, 1779, an incident occurred of a more 
personal nature, which serves to illustrate clearly 
the qualities of Mr. Jefferson's disposition, and 
which proves that his views of reform and ameliora- 
tion were not theories merely, but were substantial 
and practical realities. After the capture of Bur- 
goyne by General Gates, four thousand British 

troops became prisoners of war. At first they were 
9 



OS TlIK T.I IT VNO TIMKS 

quurtorod at r>o<:on. A nor twolvo mouths thoy 
woio roiuovod to Ciuivlottosvillo in \"irii-ini:i, six. 
miles fivm Montioollo. This arrival in thoir nudst 
thitMV the inhabitants ot' that district into tho utmost 
terror. Tho soaroity ofpiwisions and other causes 
iuduood thorn to imaii-ine that the pivseuee of this 
hirgo tbroo would load to a t'amiuo. 

Mr. ,lotVorsoi\ imniediatoly exerted hiuiselt' to 
quell the popular exeitemeut. lie assisted in tho 
eroetiou ot* eapaeious barraoks. in ostablishiuii" suita- 
ble aooon\modations tor the othoers. and in piwidiui; 
rations tor tho troops. Soon tho rosidonoe ot" the 
prisoners booamo tho abovlo ot" oomtort and oontont- 
mont. lie frequently entertained the otlioors at 
Montioollo. Ilis lar^-o and valuable library was at 
thoir disposal. Gradually tho prosonoo ot" those 
captive troops was found to bo a i^roat advantage 
and protit to tho surrounding:,- planters, and universal 
contentment roiii-uod. At this period Tatrick Henry, 
thou Governor of the State, formed the resolution 
to oixier the removal of these troops from Charlottes- 
ville to another location. This stop would have 
been exceedingly impolitic and unwise. Tho whole 
community revolted against it, loud complaints wore 
made both by the people and by tho troops, and a 
riot was apprehended. 

At this crisis Mr. Jeftersou addressed an onorgotio 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 99 

appeal to Governor Henry, urging the relinquish- 
ment of the proposed change, at great length. The 
governor and his council carefully deliberated on 
the arguments of Mr. Jefferson, and finally concluded 
to acquiesce in his views. His agency in this mat- 
ter won for him the enthusiastic applause of the 
whole people in the neighborhood of Monticello, 
and especially were the ofiicers of the British troops, 
who had derived so many advantages from the 
proximity of Mr. Jefferson, intensely grateful. 
Some of these were Hessians, and many years after- 
ward, when Mr. Jefferson was traveling in Germany, 
he had the pleasure of meeting some of these officers 
again, and of receiving their demonstrations of 
gratitude and esteem. When the foreign officers 
eventually left Charlottesville, they addressed letters 
of acknowledgment to their benefactor, which indi- 
cated how greatly they considered themselves under 
obligations to him. 

The communication addressed by Mr. Jefferson 
on this occasion to Governor Henry, is so peculiar in 
its style and spirit, that we will here introduce a 
portion of it. It is as follows : 

" It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the 
horrors of war as much as possible. The practice, 
therefore, of modern nations of treating captive ene- 
mies with politeness and generosity, is not only 



100 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

delightful in contemplation, but really interesting 
to all the world, friends, foes, and nentrals. Let us 
apply this : the officers, after considerable hardships, 
have all procured quarters, comfortable and satis- 
factory to them. In order to do this, they -were 
obliged, in many instances, to hire houses for a year, 
certain, and at such exorbitant rents, as were sulli- 
cient to tempt independent owners to go out of 
them, and shift as they could. These houses, in most 
cases, were much out of repair. They have repaired 
them at a considerable expense. One of the gene- 
ral officers has taken a place for two years, advanced 
the rent for the whole time, and been obliged, more- 
over, to erect additional buildings, for the accom- 
modation of a part of his family, for which there 
was not room in the house rented. Independent of 
the brickwork, for the carpentry of these additional 
buildings I know he is to pay fifteen hundred dol- 
lars. The same gentleman, to my knowledge, has 
paid to one person three thousand six hundred and 
seventy dollars, for difierent articles, to fix himself 
commodiously. They have, generally, laid in their 
stocks of grain, and other provisions ; for it is well 
known that officers do not live on their rations. 
They have purchased cows, sheep, &e. ; set into 
farming ; prepared their gardens, and have a pros- 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 101 

pect of quiet and comfort before tbem. To turn to 
the soldiers — the environs of the barracks are de- 
lightful, the ground cleared, laid ofi' in hundreds of 
gardens, each inclosed in its separate paling ; these 
well prepared, and exhibiting a fine appearance. 
General Reid^sel alone laid out upM^ard of two 
hundred pounds in garden seeds for the German 
troops only. Judge what an extent of ground these 
seeds would cover. There is little doubt, that their 
own gardens will furnish them with a great abund- 
ance of vegetables through the year. Their poultry, 
pigeons, and other preparations of that kind, present 
to the mind the idea of a company of farmers, rather 
than a camp of soldiers. In addition to the bar- 
racks built for them by the public, and now very 
comfortable, they have built great numbers for 
themselves, in such messes as fancied each other ; 
and the whole corps, both officers and men, seem now 
happy and satisfied with their situation. Having 
thus found the art of rendering captivity itself com- 
fortable, and carried it into execution, at their own 
great expense and labor, their spirits sustained by 
the prospect of gratifications rising before their eyes, 
does not every sentiment of humanity revolt against 
the proposition of stripping them of all this, and 
removing them into new^ situations, where, from the 
9* 



102 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

advanced season of the year, no preparations can be 
made for carrying themselves comfortably through 
the heats of summer ; and when it is known that 
the necessary advances for the conveniences already 
provided, have exhausted their funds, and left them 
unable to make the like exertions anew ?" 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 103 



CHAPTER VI. 

MR. JEFFERSON ELECTED GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA — HIS MEASURES OF RE- 
TALIATION UPON THE BRITISH ARREST OP HENRY HAMILTON — WASHING- 
TON APPROVES OF JEFFERSON'S MEASURES — TARLTON'S INVASION OP 

VIRGINIA — Jefferson's activity — his letter to Washington — attack 

OF the BRITISH ON RICHMOND — SCHEMES TO CAPTURE ARNOLD THEIR 

FAILURE — ATTEMPT OF THE BRITISH TO TAKE JEFFERSON AT MONTICELLO 
— HIS ESCAPE — EFFORTS MADE TO IMPEACH JEFFERSON IN THE LEGISLA- 
TURE — THEIR DEFEAT — JEFFERSON'S DEFENSE OF HIS OFFICIAL ACTS. 

On withdrawing from the legislature of Virginia, 
Mr. Jefferson was complimented with the highest 
trust within their gift. He was elected governor 
of the State. This event took place on the 1st of 
June, 1779. 

One of the first steps which the new governor 
took was of a retributory nature toward the fierce 
and implacable foes who were then ravaging the 
land, laboring to crush the liberties of the people, 
and striving to destroy their military defenders. 
The generous example of their conduct toward the 
captive army of Burgoyne, was now totally lost upon 
them. The American officers and soldiers who had 
been taken prisoners were loaded with chains. 
They were confined in crowded and filthy dungeons 
and prison ships. Their food was pernicious and 



104 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

detestable. Many had been transported, tried, con- 
victed, and punished in England. Mr. Jefferson 
determined at this crisis to try the effect of a just 
severity upon those prisoners then in his power, in 
order to soften the measures pursued by the foe. The 
cruel and rapacious governor of Detroit, Henry 
Hamilton, was then in the hands of the Americans, 
together with Philip Dejean, a justice of the peace 
of Detroit, and "William Lamotte, a captain, all of 
whom had been taken prisoners by Col. Clarke at 
Fort Vincennes, and brought under guard to "Wil- 
liamsburg. These men had been notorious for their 
great barbarity toward the Americans. Hamilton 
especially had been unequalled for his crimes of 
blood. He had spurred on the Indians to acts of the 
utmost cruelty to the settlers ; and to increase the 
number of murders he had given a high reward for 
scalps, and had refused all rewards for prisoners. 
All of these men had rendered themselves notorious 
for the scalping parties which they had organized 
and led over the frontier settlements, in which ex- 
cursions they had butchered, with indiscriminate 
ferocity, men, women, and children.* 

To punish these villains, and to strike a whole- 
some terror into their former associates, Mr. Jeffer- 
son ordered that they should be put in irons, con- 

• Vide JeflFerson's Works. Vol. I. Appendix, note A. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 105 

fined in a dungeon in the public prison, deprived of 
all use of pen, ink and paper, and be forbidden to 
hold communication with any one except their 
keepers. 

These decisive steps received the unqualified ap- 
probation of General Washington. He thought it 
highly desirable that at least one solemn proof 
should be given, that the patriots of the Revolution 
could be just as well as generous. That proof could 
again be repeated, should a repetition be deemed 
advisable. The fi.rst effect which these measures 
produced upon the British was to retaliate. They 
published a declaration that no ofiicer of the Virginia 
line should be exchanged as long as Hamilton and 
his friends remained in captivity. As soon as Jef- 
ferson received information of this resolution, he 
ordered all exchange of British prisoners to be 
stopped. He intended to retain them as pledges for 
the security of the captive patriots. A prison ship 
was fitted up for their especial accommodation. 
Special means were used to ascertain the kind of 
treatment the Americans received at the hands of 
their captors. The final result of this retaliative 
process on both sides was precisely such as Mr. Jeffer- 
son had anticipated. The appeals of the British 
prisoners to their own countrymen became so urgent 
and so pertinacious, that the latter were at last 



106 THE LIFE AND TIMES " 

compelled to yield, to treat the American captives 
with the hiimanit}' required by the laws of civilized 
warfare, and by so doing- to secure the comfort of 
those minions of the British despot who had fallen 
into the hands of the patriots. 

The period of the memorable invasion of Virginia 
by the notorious Tarlton now arrived. His path- 
way through the young commonwealth was marked 
by blood and rapine. Terror spread rapidly 
throughout the whole community; but the preva- 
lence of terror did not prevent those who were in 
imminent danger from arousing themselves to ener- 
getic deeds of fortitude and self-defense. At this 
crisis very great responsibility lay upon Mr. Jeffer- 
son as the chief magistrate of the State. He em- 
ployed all his influence and abilities to provide 
proper means of protection against the common foe. 
He called upon the legislature to act with prompt- 
ness and decision. That body immediately clothed 
the governor with extraordinary powers. The sum- 
mer of 1779 passed away in repeated alarms, and in 
hurried preparations for resistance. On the 11th 
of June Mr. Jefferson addressed the following letter 
to General Washington, advising him of the critical 
state of affairs in the State, and the surrounding 
colonies : 

"Our intelligence from the southward is most 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 107 

lamentably defective. Though Charleston has now 
been in the hands of the enemy nearly a month, we 
hear nothing of their movements which can be relied 
upon. Rumors say they are penetrating northward. 
To remedy this defect, I shall immediately establish 
a line of expresses from hence to a neighborhood of 
their army, and send thither a sensible, judicious 
person, to give us information of their movements. 
This intelligence will, I hope, be conveyed at the 
rate of one hundred and twenty miles in the twenty- 
four hours. They set out to their stations to-mor- 
row. I wish it were possible that a like speedy line 
of communication could be formed from hence to 
your excellency's head-quarters. Perfect and speedy 
iaformation of what is passing in the south, might 
put it in your power perhaps to frame your measures 
by theirs. There is really nothing to oppose the 
enemy northward, but the cautious principle of the 
military art. Korth Carolina is without arms. They 
do not abound with us. Those we have are freely 
imparted to them ; but such is the state of their 
resources that they have not been able to move a 
sino-le musket from this State to theirs. All the 
wao-ons we can collect here have been furnished to 
the Baron de Kalb, and are assembled for the march 
of 2500 men under General Stevens, of Culpepper, 
M'ho will move on the 19th inst. I have written to 



10<S THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Congress to hasten supplies of arms and military 
stores for the southern States, and particularly to aid 
us with cartridge paper and boxes, the want of 
which articles, small as they are, renders our stores 
useless. The want of money cramps every effort. 
This will be supplied by the most unpalatable of all 
substitutes, force. Your excellency will readily 
conceive that, after the loss of one army, our eyes 
are turned toward the other, and that we comfort 
ourselves with the hope that, if any aids can be fur- 
nished by you, without defeating the operations 
more beneficial to the Union, they will be furnished. 
At the same time, I am happy to find that the wishes 
of the people go no further, as far as I have an op- 
portunity of hearing their sentiments. Could arms 
be furnished, I think this State and North Carolina 
would embody from ten to fifteen thousand militia 
immediately, and more if necessary. I hope ere 
long to be able to give you a more certain statement 
of the enemy's as well as our own situation." 

On the 30th of December Mr. Jefferson received 
information that twenty-seven British ships had 
entered the capes of Virginia on the preceding day. 
He immediately sent General Nelson to the lower 
counties of the State, for the purpose of calling out 
the militia. The fleet proceeded up James river. 
On the 3d of January, 1780, it anchored at James- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 109 

town. At Westover cue tliousaud men were landed 
under the command of the traitor Arnold, and they 
proceeded at once toward Richmond. This was a 
complete surprise ; for no attack at that point had 
been expected, and all the militia had been marched 
to Williamsburg. The legislature immediately dis- 
persed. When the British were at Four Mile Creek, 
twelve miles from Richmond, Mr. Jefferson also 
deserted the capital at seven o'clock at night. He 
proceeded to join his family at Tuckahoe, eight 
miles from Richmond. There he remained until 
the approach of the enemy compelled him to retreat 
to Manchester. "While halting at this place he was 
visited by some of the citizens of Richmond, who 
conveyed an offer from Arnold not to burn the town, 
provided the tobacco there deposited was delivered 
up to the possession of the foe. This offer was in- 
stantly rejected. As soon as Arnold reached Rich- 
mond, he destroyed the cannon foundry, and a large 
quantity of tobacco as well as many public 
and private buildings were burned. He then re- 
turned to his ships after an excursion of forty-eight 
hours; and committing deeds which will involve 
his name in eternal infamy, as the foe and assailant 
of his native land. Immediately after the departure 
of Arnold from Richmond, Mr. Jefierson devised a 
scheme for the capture of the traitor. He addressed 
10 



110 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

the following letter to General Muhlenberg on the 
subject: 

" Sir : Acquainted as you are with the treasons 
of Arnold, I need say nothing for your information, 
or to give you a proper sentiment of them. You 
will readily suppose that it is above all things desira- 
ble to drag him from those under whose wing he is 
now sheltered. On his march to and from this 
place, I am certain it might have been done with 
facility, by men of enterprise and firmness. I think 
it may still be done, though perhaps not quite so 
easily. Having peculiar confidence in the men from 
the western side of the mountains, I meant, as soon 
as they should come down, to get the enterprise 
proposed to a chosen number of them, such whose 
courage and whose fidelity would be above all doubt. 
Your perfect knowledge of these men personally, 
and my confidence in your discretion, induce me to 
ask you to seek from among them proper characters, 
in such numbers as you think best; to reveal to 
them our desire ; and engage them to undertake to 
seize and bring oft' this greatest of all traitors. 
Whether this may be best effected by their going in 
as friends, and awaiting their opportunity, or other- 
wise, is left to themselves. The smaller the number 
the better, so that they may be sufficient to manage 
him. Every necessary caution must be used on their 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. Ill 

part, to prevent a discovery of their design by the 
enemy. I will undertake, if they are successful in 
bringing liim off" alive, that they shall receive five 
thousand guineas reward among them ; and to men 
formed for such an enterprise, it must be a great 
incitement to know that their names will be recorded 
with glory in history, with those of Yanwert, Pauld- 
ing, and Williams." 

The guilty fears of Arnold rendered him doubly 
cautious, and the plan of his capture was not success- 
ful. Nevertheless Jefferson was not disheartened, 
but devised a second trap, in which he was to receive 
the assistance of General "Washington and the 
French fleet. That plan was to block up the river 
by means of the land and naval forces of the patriots 
as to completely hem in the foe, and eventually to 
secure his capture. But the arrival of a British 
squadron of superior size drove the French fleet 
from the Chesapeake, and again defeated the plan 
of Jeflferson for the capture of the arch-traitor. 

Arnold having retreated from Virginia, Lord 
Cornwallis immediately afterward entered the State 
from the south. The legislature convened at Char- 
lottesville on the 28th of May, and soon began to 
discuss and adopt measures of vigorous resistance. 
The very day the legislature assembled, Mr. Jeffer- 



112 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

son addressed the following letter to General Wash- 
ington : 

"I have just been advised, he says, that the 
British have evacuated Petersburg, been joined by a 
considerable reinforcement from New York, and 
crossed James River at Westover. They were, on the 
26th instant," three miles advanced toward Richmond, 
at which place Major-General the Marquis Fayette 
lay with three thousand men, regulars and militia, 
that being the whole number we could arm, until 
the arrival of the 1100 stand of arms from Rhode 
Island, which are about this time at the place where 
our public stores are deposited. The whole force 
of the enemy wnthin this State, from the best intelli- 
gence I have been able to get, is, I think, about 
7000 men, including the garrison left at Portsmouth. 
A number of privateers, which are constantly ravag- 
ing the shores of our rivers, prevent us from receiv- 
ing any aid from the counties lying on navigable 
waters ; and powerful operations meditated against 
our western frontier, by a joint force of British and 
Indian savages, have, as your excellency before 
knew, obliged us to embody between two and three 
thousand men in that quarter. Your excellency 
will judge from this state of things, and from what 
you know of your own country, what it may proba- 
bly sufter during the present campaign. Should 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 113 

the enemy be able to obtain no opportunity of anni- 
hilating the marquis's army, a small proportion of 
their force may yet restrain his movements elFectu- 
ally, while the greater part is employed in detach- 
ments to waste an unarmed country, and lead the 
minds of the people to acquiesce under those events 
which they see no human power prepared to 
ward oft". We are too far removed from the other 
scenes of w^ar, to say whether the main force of the 
enemy be within this State; but I suppose they 
cannot any where spare so great an army for the 
operations of the field. "Were it possible for this 
circumstance to justify, in your excellency, a deter- 
mination to lend us your personal aid, it is evident 
from the universal voice, that the presence of their 
beloved countryman, whose talents have so long- 
been successfully employed in establishing the free- 
dom of kindred States, to whose person they have 
still flattered themselves they retained some right, 
and have ever looked upon as their dernier resort in 
distress ; that your appearance, among them, I say, 
would restore full confidence of salvation, and would 
render them equal to whatever is not impossible. I 
cannot undertake to foresee and obviate the diffi- 
culties which lie in the way of such a resolution. 
The whole subject is before you, of which I see only 
detached parts. Should the danger of the State, 
10* 



114 TEE LIFE AND TIMES 

and its consequences to the Union, be such as to 
render it best for the whole that you should repair 
to its assistance, the difficulty would then be how to 
keep men out of the field. I have undertaken to 
hint this matter to your excellency, not only on my 
own sense of its importance to us, but at the solici- 
tation of many members of weight in our legislature, 
which has not yet assembled to speak its own desires. 
A few days Avill bring to me that relief, which the 
Constitution has prepared for those oppressed with 
the labors of my office; and a long declared resolu- 
tion of relinquishing it to abler hands, has prepared 
my way for retirement to a private station ; still, as 
an individual, I should feel the comfortable effects 
of your presence, and have (what I thought could 
not have been) an additional motive for that grati- 
tude, esteem and respect, which I have long felt for 
your excellency," 

It was at this period that Tarlton made his famous 
attempt to surprise and capture Mr. Jefferson at 
Monticello. Having approached within ten miles 
of that place with his whole force, he sent a detach- 
ment of horse rapidly in advance, under the com- 
mand of Captain McLeod, to accomplish that 
purpose. But several of Mr. Jefferson's friends had 
apprized him of his peril, and he was able to mako 
his escape, about ten minutes before the arrival of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 115 

the foe. He rocle rapidly on horseback through the 
adjacent forests to the house of Edward Carter, six 
miles distant, and thus eluded the British. 

The following extract from the defense which was 
made by Mr. Jefferson against the charges which 
had been preferred against him, at once both vindi- 
cates him from the accusations of his foes, and 
exhibits the peculiar spirit with which he repelled 
their malignant attacks upon his honor and his 
fame. 

" M. de La Fayette, about this time, arrived at 
Richmond with some continental troops, with which 
and the militia collected in the neighborhood, he 
continued to occupy that place, and the north bank 
of the river, while Phillips and Arnold held Man- 
chester and the south bank. But Lord Cornwallis, 
about the middle of May, joining them with the 
main southern army, M. de La Fayette was obliged 
to retire. The enemy crossed the river and ad- 
vanced up into the country, about fifty miles, and 
within thirty miles of Charlottesville, at which place 
the legislature being to meet in June, the governor 
proceeded to his seat at Monticello, two or three 
miles from it. His office was now near expiring — 
the country under invasion by a powerful army — no 
services but military of any avail — unprepared by 
his line of life and education for the command of 



116 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

armies, he believed it right not to stand in the way 
of talents better fitted than his own to the circum- 
stances under which the country was placed. He, 
therefore, himself proposed to his friends in the 
legislature, that General Nelson, who commanded 
the militia of the state, should be appointed governor, 
as he was sensible that the union of the civil and 
military power in the same hands, at this time, 
would greatly facilitate military measures. This 
appointment accordingly took place on the 12th of 
June, 1781." 

After narrating the particulars of Tarlton's attempt 
to surprise him at Monticello, he thus comments on 
the charge which his enemies had founded on that 
enterprise : 

" This is the famous adventure of Carter's Moun- 
tain, which has been so often resounded through 
the slanderous chronicles of federalism. But they 
have taken care never to detail the facts, lest these 
should show that this favorite charge amounted to 
nothing more than that he did not remain in his 
house, and there singly fight a whole troop of horse, 
or suffer himself to be taken prisoner. Having 
accompanied his family one day's journey, he re- 
turned to Monticello. Tarlton had retired after 
eighteen hours' stay in Charlottesville. Mr. Jeffer- 
son then rejoined his family, and proceeded with 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 117 

them to an estate he had \n Bedford, about eighty 
miles south-west, where, riding on his farm, some 
time after, he was thrown from his horse, and disa- 
bled from riding on horsebacP for a considerable 
time. But Mr. Turner finds it more convenient to 
give him this fall, in his retreat before Tarlton, 
which had happened some weeks before, as a proof 
that he withdrew from a troop of horse with a pre- 
cipitancy which Don Quixotte would not have 
practiced. 

" The facts here stated most particularly, with 
date of time and place, are taken from the notes 
made by the writer hereof, for his own satisfaction 
at the time — the others are from memory, but so 
well recollected, that he is satisfied there is no ma- 
terial fact misstated. Should any person undertake 
to contradict any particular, on evidence which may 
at all merit the public respect, the writer will take 
the trouble (though not at all in the best situation 
for it) to produce the proofs in support of it. He 
finds, indeed, that of the persons whom he recollects 
to have been present on the occasion, few have sur- 
vived the intermediate lapse of four and twenty 
years. Yet he trusts that some, as well as himself, 
are yet among the living ; and he is positively cer- 
tain that no man can falsify any material fact here 
stated. He well remembers, indeed, that there wero 



lis THE LIFE AXD TIMES 

then, as tliorc are at all tiinos, some who l^lamocl 
every thing done contrary to their own opinion, 
althongli their opinions wore formed on a very 
partial knowledge M tacts. The censures which 
have hecn hazarded hy such men as Mr. Turner, 
are nothing- but revivals of these half-informed 
opinions. Mr. George Nicholas, then a very yonn-;- 
man, but always a very honest one, was prompted 
hy these pereous to bring specific charges against 
Mr. Jefferson. The heads of these, in writing, were 
communicated through a mutual friend to ^[r. 
Jefferson, who committeil to writing also the heads 
of justitieation on each ol^ them. I well remember 
this paper, and believe the original of it still exists; 
and thougli framed when every real fact was fresh in 
the knowledge of every one, this fabricated flight 
from Richmond was not among the charges stated 
in this paper, nor any charge against Mr. JelVersou 
for not fighting, singly, the troop of horse, iMr. 
Nicholas candidly relinquished further proceeding. 
The House of Representatives of Virginia pro- 
nounced an honorable sentence of entire approbation 
of Mr. Jefferson's conduct, and so mueh the more 
honorable, as themselves had been witnesses to it. 
And Mr. George Nicholas took a conspicuous occa- 
sion afterward, of his own free will, and when the 
matter was entirely at rest, to retract publicly the 



OF THOMAS ,IErFKR?OX. 119 

erroneous opinions be had been led into on that 
occasion, and to make just reparation by a candid 
acknowledgment of them." 

While Mr. Jefferson was confined at Poplar For- 
est, his estate in Bedford, in consequence of the fall 
from his horse, and was thereby incapable of any 
active employment, public or private. lie occupied 
himself with answering the queries which Mons. de 
Marbois, then secretary of the French Legation to 
the United States, had submitted to him respecting 
the physical and political condition of Virginia; 
which answers were afterward published by him, 
under the title of " Xotes on Virginia." When we 
consider how difficult it is, even in the present day, 
to get an accurate knowledge of such details of our 
country, and how much greater the difficulty must 
have then been, we are surprised at the extent of 
the information which a single individual had been 
able to acquire, as to the physical features of the 
State — the course, length and depth of its rivers, its 
zoological and botanical productions, its Indian- 
tribes, its statistics and its laws. After the lapse of 
more than half a century, by much the larger part 
of this work still gives us the fullest and most ac- 
curate information which we possess in reference to 
the subjects of which it treats. 



120 THE LIFE AND TIMES 



CHAPTER VII. 

MR. JEFFERSON CHOSEN A PLENIPOTENTIARY TO ENGLAND — DEATH OF MRS. 
JKFFERSON — MISSION TO ENGLAND ABANDONED — MR. JEFFERSON ELECTED 
A DELEGATE TO CONGRESS — IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CURRENCY WASHING- 
TON RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION TO CONGRESS AT ANNAPOLIS THE DEFINI- 
TIVE TREATY WITH ENGLAND — ANTI-SLAVERY ORDINANCES PROPOSED BY 
MR. JEFFERSON IN CONGRESS IN 1784 HE IS APPOINTED PLENIPOTENTI- 
ARY TO FRANCE — CONFERENCES WITH THE FRENCH MINISTRY — ATTEMPT 
TO NEGOTIATE A COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 

On the 15th of June, 1781, Mr. Jefferson was 
chosen by Congress, in connection with Messrs. 
Adams, Franklin, Jay and Laurens, as minister- 
plenipotentiary, to negotiate a peace which was then 
contemplated with England, through the mediation 
of Russia. He however declined the appointment. 
The expected mediation of Russia never took place, 
and very soon the memorable capture of Cornwallis 
at Yorktown rendered it unnecessary. The cause 
of tyranny became thereafter hopeless in the United 
Colonies, and the enemy was compelled at once to 
treat. On this important occasion Mr. Jefferson 
was again chosen to represent the interests of this 
country. This appointment he accepted, and among 
the motives which influenced him so to do, was one 
of a domestic and painful nature. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 121 

III September, 1782, Mrs. Jefferson died, and this 
bereavement produced a ,deep eflect upon her hus- 
band's mind. lie had three daughters who survived 
their mother, and to every member of his family 
he was tenderly attached. He supposed that a 
change of scene might produce a beneficial effect 
upon his spirits. Mrs. Randolph, his favorite 
daughter, thus speaks of the effect which the death 
of Mrs. Jefferson produced upon the mind of the 
subject of this memoir: 

" As a nurse, no female ever had more tenderness 
or anxiety. He nursed my poor mother, in turn, 
with aunt Carr and his own sisters ; sitting up with 
her, and administering her medicines and drink to 
the last. For four months that she lingered, he 
was never out of calling. When not at her bed-side, 
he was writing in a small room that opened imme- 
diately at the head of her bed. A moment before 
the closing scene, he was led from the room almost 
in a state of insensibility by his sister, Mrs. Carr, 
who with difficulty got him into his library, where 
he fainted, and remained so long insensible, that 
they became apprehensive he never would revive. 
The scene that followed I did not witness ; but the 
violence of his grief, (when, by stealth, I entered his 
room at night,) I dare not trust myself to describe. 
He kept his room three weeks, during which I was 
11 



122 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

never a moment from his side. He walked almost 
incessantly, night and day, lying down only occa- 
sionally, when nature was completely exhausted, on 
a pallet, that had been brought in during his long 
fainting fit. My aunts remained constantly with 
him for some weeks ; I do not remember how many. 
When at last he left his room, he rode out and 
from that time he was incessantly on horseback, 
rambling about the mountains, in the least frequent- 
ed roads, and just as often through the woods." 

Having accepted the mission offered him by Con- 
gress, Mr. Jefferson started on the 19th of Decem- 
ber, 1782, for Philadelphia. There he arrived after 
a journey of eight days. He proposed to embark 
at that place; but the French minister, M. Lucerne, 
offeiing him a passage in a frigate then lying below 
Baltimore, he proceeded thither. The ice still im- 
peded and suspended the navigation, and he was 
compelled to wait during several months. In the 
mean time, however, a provisional treaty of peace had 
been signed by the American commissioners on the 
3d of September ; and this event precluding the ne- 
cessity of the further agency of the new commis- 
sioners, Mr. Jefierson returned on the 15th of May 
to Monticello. 

On the 6tli of June, the Legislature of Virginia 
appointed him a delegate to Congress. He left 



OF THOMAS JEFFEKSON. 123 

Monticello on the 16tli of October, and arrived at 
Trenton, where Congress then sat, on the 4th of 
November. On the 25th of that month Congress 
adjourned to meet at Annapolis, the capital of 
Maryland; but it was not until the 13th of Decem- 
ber that a quorum could be obtained. 

The first subject which engaged his attention as a 
member of this Congress, was that of the currency. 
The colonies had always experienced the want of 
a sufiicient supply of the precious metals; and 
although their currency was nominally the same as 
that of the mother country, it had greatly depre- 
ciated, not only abroad, but even among the States 
themselves. A hundred pounds of English money 
were then equivalent to a hundred and thirty-three 
and a third pounds in Virginia and through New 
England. In other States the disproportion was 
still greater. The attention of Congress had been 
first called to this subject by Robert Morris in 1782. 
That great financier made an elaborate report, show- 
ing the importance of a general standard value of 
money. At the session of Congress which then 
convened, the subject was referred to a committee, 
of which Mr. Jefferson was a member. He sug- 
gested a plan, in favor of which the committee 
eventually reported. This plan of arranging the 
currency was adopted by Congress during the fol- 



124 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

lowing year. He suggested the introduction of the 
dollar as our unit of account and payment; and 
its division and subdivision in tlie decimal ratio, 
into dimes, cents, and mills. He proposed the same 
principle in the regulation of weights, measures, and 
distances. The plan has been found admirable in 
reference to the coin; but it has never been tried 
in regard to the other matters. 

On the 19th December General Washington 
arrived at Annapolis for the purpose of resigning 
to Congress the liigh military command with which 
he had been intrusted, and which he had exercised 
with such success and glory. 

A committee, of which Mr. Jefferson was chair- 
man, was appointed to make arrangements for the 
occasion. The ceremony took place in the State 
House Hall, at 12 o'clock, on the 23d of December, 
in the presence of all the officers of the federal and 
state governments and of numerous spectators. The 
moral grandeur of the scene, and the patriotic ex- 
ultation it was likely to call forth, could not sup- 
press a feeling of tender melancholy on beholding 
that connection dissolved which had been the source 
of so much national pride and glory ; and many of 
the spectators, yielding to this emotion, melted into 
tears. The principal actors themselves, General 
Washington and the president of Congress, General 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 125 

Mifflin, were almost overpowered by their feelings. 
This closing act of the great drama made a deep 
impression on the whole American people, and 
forms one of the interesting subjects with which- 
Trumbull's gifted pencil has adorned the Capitol at 
Washington. The addresses of the general, and of 
the president of Congress in reply to him, exhibit 
the same beautiful simplicity, both as to thought and 
diction, which was suited to the occasion. That of 
the president, ascribed to the pen of Mr. Jefferson, 
is quoted as a specimen of his happiest manner. 

Sir : The United States, in Congress assembled, 
receive with emotions too affecting for utterance, the 
solemn resignation of the authorities under which 
you have led their troops with success through a 
perilous and doubtful war. Called upon by your 
country to defend its invaded rights, you accepted 
the sacred charge, before it had formed alliances, 
and whilst it was without funds, or a government to 
support you. You have conducted the great mili- 
tary contest with wisdom and fortitude, invariably 
regarding the rights of the civil power through all 
disasters and changes. You have, by the love and 
confidence of your fellow-citizens, enabled them to 
display their martial genius, and transmit their fame 
to posterity. You have persevered, till these United 
11* 



126 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

States, aided by a magnauiraous king and nation, 
have been enabled, under a just Providence, to close 
the war in freedom, safety and independence ; on 
which happy event we sincerely join you in con- 
gratulations. 

" Having defended the standard of liberty in this 
new world ; having taught a lesson useful to those 
who inflict, and to those who feel oppression, you 
retire from the great theatre of action, with the 
blessings of your fellow-citizens — but the glory of 
your virtues will not terminate with your military 
command, it will continue to animate remotest 
ages. 

" We feel with you our obligations to the army 
in general, and will particularly charge ourselves 
with the interests of those confidential officers, who 
have attended your person to this aftecting moment. 

" We join you in commending the interests of our 
dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, 
beseeching him to dispose the hearts and minds of 
its citizens to improve the opportunity afibrded 
them of becoming a happy and respectable nation. 
And for you we address to him our earnest prayers, 
that a life so beloved may be fostered with all his 
care; that your days may be happy as they have 
been illustrious ; and that he will finally give you 
that reward which this world cannot give." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 327 

Immediately after this event the definitive treaty 
with England arrived at Annapolis, and its provi- 
sions became the subject of protracted arguments 
and discussions. In reference to this occasion Mr. 
Jefferson has said : " Our body was httle numerous 
but very contentious. Day after day was wasted 
on the most unimportant questions. A member, 
one of those afflicted with the morbid rasre of debate, 
of an ardent mind, prompt imagination, and copious 
flow of words, who heard with impatience any logic 
which was not his own, sitting near me, on some 
occasion of a trifling but wordy debate, asked me 
how I could sit in silence, hearing so much false 
reasoning, which a word should refute ? I observed 
to him, that to refute indeed was easy, but to 
silence impossible ; that in measures brought for- 
ward by myself I took the laboring oar, as was in- 
cumbent on me ; but that in general I was willing 
to listen ; that if every sound argument or objection 
was used by some one or other of the numerous 
debaters, it was enough ; if not, I thought it sufli- 
cient to suggest the omission, without going into a 
repetition of what had been already said by others : 
that this was a waste and abuse of the time and 
patience of the house, which could not be justified. 
And I believe, that if the members of deliberative 
bodies were to observe this course generally, they 



128 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

would do in a day what takes tliem a week ; and it 
is really more questionable than may at first be 
thought, whether Bonaparte's dumb legislature, 
which said nothing and did much, may not be 
preferable to one which talks much and does nothing. 
I served with General Washington in the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia, before the Revolution, and during 
it with Dr. Franklin in Congress; I never heard 
either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to 
any but the main point which was to decide the ques- 
tion. They laid their shoulders to the great points, 
knowing that the little ones would follow of them- 
selves. If the present Congress errs in too much 
talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which 
the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, 
whose trade it is to question every thing, yield 
nothing, and talk by the hour ? That one hundred 
and fifty lawyers should do business together ought 
not to be expected." 

At length, on the 14th of January, the delegates 
from nine States having arrived, the treaty was rati- 
fied without a dissenting voice. 

Subsequent to the conclusion of this important 
matter, on the 1st of March, 1784, a committee con- 
sisting of Messrs. Jefferson, Chase of Maryland, 
and Howell of Rhode Island, reported to Congress 
the following celebrated ordinance for the govern- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 129 

ment of all tlie national territory lying beyond the 
limits of the thirteen States, and not merely the 
North-Western Territory, and for the exclusion of 
slavery therefrom. 

'■'- Resolved^ That the territory ceded or to be ceded 
by individual States to the United States, whenso- 
ever the same shall have been purchased of the 
Indian inhabitants and offered for sale by the Unit- 
ed States, shall be formed into additional States, 
bounded in the following manner, as nearly as such 
cessions will admit ; that is to say, northwardly and 
southwardly by parallels of latitude, so that each 
State shall comprehend from south to north two 
degrees of latitude, beginning to count from the 
completion of thirty-one degrees north of the 
equator ; but any territory northwardly of the 
forty-seventh degree shall make part of the State 
next below. And eastwardly and westwardly they 
shall be bounded, those on the Mississippi, by 
that river on one side and the meridian of the low- 
est point of the rapids of ,the Ohio on the other; 
and those adjoining on the east, by the same meri- 
dian on their western side, and on their eastern 
by the meridian of the western cape of the mouth 
of the great Kanawha. And the territory eastward 
of this last meridian, between the Ohio, Lake Erie, 
and Pennsylvania, shall be one State. 



loO THE LIFE AND TIMES 

" That the settlers within the territory so to be 
purchased and offered for sale shall, either on their 
own petition or on the order of Congress, receive 
authority from them, with appointments of time and 
place, for their free males of full age to meet to- 
gether for the purpose of estahlishing a temporary 
government, to adopt the constitution and laws of 
any one of these States, so that such laws neverthe- 
less shall be subject to alteration by their ordinary 
Legislature, and to erect, subject to a like alteration, 
counties or townships for the election of members 
for their legislature. 

"That such temporary government shall only 
continue in force in any State until it shall have 
acquired twenty thousand free inhabitants, when, 
giving the due proof thereof to Congress, they shall 
receive from them authority, with appointments of 
time and place, to call a convention of representa- 
tives to establish a permanent constitution and 
government for themselves; provided, that both 
the temporary and permanent governments be 
established on these principles as their basis : 

" 1. That they shall forever remain a part of the 
CJnited States of America. 

" 2. That in their persons, property, and territory, 
they shall be subject to the Government of the Unit- 
ed States in Congress assembled, and to the Articles 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 131 

of Confederation in all those cases in vvbicli tlie 
original States shall be so subject. 

" 3. That they shall be subject to pay a part of the 
Federal debts, contracted or to be contracted, to be 
apportioned on them by Congress according to the 
same common rule and measure by which appor- 
tionments thereof shall be made on the other States. 

" 4. That their respective governments shall be in 
republican forms, and shall admit no person to be a 
citizen who holds any hereditary title. 

" 5. That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, 
there shall be neither slaveri/ nor involu7itary servi- 
tude in any of the said States, otherwise than in 
punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted to have been personally guilty. 

" That whenever any of the said States shall have, 
of free inhabitants, as many as shall then be in any 
one of the least numerous of the thirteen original 
States, such State shall be admitted, by its delegates, 
into the Congress of the United States, on an equal 
footing with the said original States; after which 
the assent of two-thirds of the United States, in 
Congress assembled, shall be requisite in all those 
cases wherein, by the confederation, the assent of 
nine States is now required, provided the consent of 
nine States to such admission may be obtained 
according to the eleventh of the Articles of Cou- 



]?,2 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

federation. Until such admission by their delegates 
into Congress, any of the said States, after the 
establishment of their temporary government, shall 
have authority to keep a sitting member in Con- 
gress, with a right of debating, but not of voting. 

" That the territory northward of the forty-fifth 
degree, that is to say, of the completion of forty-five 
degrees from the equator, and extending to the Lake 
of the Woods, shall be called Sylvania ; that of the 
territory under the forty-fifth and forty-fourth de- 
grees, that which lies westward of Lake Michigan, 
shall be called Michigania ; and that which is east- 
ward thereof, within the peninsula formed by the 
lakes and waters of Aiichigan, Huron, St. Clair, and 
Erie, shall be called Chersonesus, and shall include 
any part of the peninsula which may extend above 
the forty-fifth degree. Of the territory under the 
forty-third and forty-second degrees, that to the 
westward, through which the Assenisipi or Eock 
Kiver runs, shall be called Assenisipia ; and that to 
the eastward, in which are the fountains of the 
Muskingum, the two Miamies of the Ohio, the Wa- 
bash, the Illinois, the Miami of the Lake, and the 
Sandusky rivers, shall be called Metropotamia. Of 
the territory which lies under the forty-first and for- 
tieth degrees, the western, through which the river 
Illinois runs, shall be called lUinoia ; the next ad- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 133 

joining to the eastward, Saratoga; and that between 
this last and Pennsylvania, and extending from the 
Ohio to Lake Erie, shall he called Washington. Of 
the terrritory which lies under the thirty-ninth and 
thirty-eighth degrees, to which shall be added so 
much of the point of land within the fork of the 
Ohio and Mississippi as lies under the thirty-seventh 
degree ; that to the westward, within and adjacent 
to which are the confluences of the rivers Wabash, 
Shawanee, Tanisee, Ohio, Illinois, Mississippi, and 
Missouri, shall be called Polypotamia ; and that to 
the eastward, further up the Ohio, otherwise called 
the Pelisipi, shall be called Pelisipia. 

" That all the preceding articles shall be formed 
into a charter of compact, shall be duly executed by 
the President of the United States in Congress 
assembled, under his hand and the seal of the United 
States, shall be promulgated, and shall stand as 
fundamental conditions between the thirteen origi- 
nal States and those newly described, unalterable 
but by the joint consent of the United States, in 
Congress assembled, and of the particular State 
within which such alteration is proposed to be 
made." 

On a test vote on adopting the anti-slavery pro- 
vision above, sixteen voted aye, and seven no ; but 

the requisite number of States failing to vote in the 
12 



104 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

allirmative, it was lost. And three years later the 
Ordinance of 1787, for the North-western Territory 
alone, was adopted. 

Cono^resshavino; resolved to send another minister 
to Europe for the purpose of negotiating treaties of 
commerce there, in addition to Messrs. Franklin 
and Adams, Mr. Jefferson was appointed for that 
post. He accepted the proffered honor, which 
allured him by the highest inducements, both of 
usefulness, fame and pleasure, so to do. He thus 
describes his voyage: "I left Annapolis on the 
11th, took with me my eldest daughter, then at 
Philadelphia (the two others being too young for the 
voyage,) and proceeded to Boston in quest of a 
passage. While passing through the different States, 
I made a point of informing myself of the state of 
the commerce of each ; went on to New Hampshire 
with the same view, and returned to Boston. Thence 
I sailed on the 5th of July, in the Ceres, a merchant 
ship of Mr. Nathaniel Tracy, bound to Cowes. He 
was himself a passenger, and after a pleasant voyage 
of nineteen days, we arrived at Cowes on the 26th. 
I was detained there a few days by the indisposition 
of my daughter. On the 30th we embarked for 
Havre, arrived there on the 31st, left it on the 3d of 
August, and arrived at Paris on the 6th. I called 
immediately on Dr. Franklin, at Passy, communi- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 135 

cated to him our charge, and we wrote to Mr. 
Adams, then at the Hague, to join us at Paris." 

In Europe, the services of Mr. Jefferson were 
highly beneficial to his country ; for independent 
of his diplomatic talent, the moral force of his char- 
acter as a statesman, a man of science, a philosopher 
and a sage, elevated the reputation of his country, 
and extorted that respect which civilized iflankind 
always pay as the tribue of reason to the power of 
intellect. Having negotiated several treaties of 
commerce. Dr. Franklin returned home; and Mr. 
Adams having been appointed ambassador at St. 
James', Mr. Jefferson was left as minister at the 
court of Versailles. 

A treaty with Prussia and Morocco was the only 
fruit of the labors of the three ambassadors. 

At the request of Mr. Adams, Jefferson now went 
over to London to attempt a treaty with that power ; 
but returned to Paris covered with disappointment, 
mortification and chagrin at the cold reception which 
the overture had received. 

From Paris, Mr. Jefferson found leisure to travel 
into Italy, and to explore Holland ; and his powers 
of observation fully enabled him to amass a fund of 
information as useful to his country as it proved 
beneficial to himself. 

In France, a long residence and a perfect mastery 



136 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

of the language could not fail to imbue liim deeply 
with European politics. His prepossessions in favor 
of the French were warm and evident; he did not con- 
ceal his attachment to the French character, and to 
French modes of thinking, acting and feeling; and 
he therefore naturally became a favorite with their 
philosophers and men of letters ; nor was it a slight 
honor to call D'Alembert his friend, to embrace Con- 
dorcet as a companion, and to acknowledge the Abbe 
Morrellet as his literary godfather, who from love 
to the author translated his Notes on Virginia. 

Although at a foreign court, the thoughts of 
Jefferson were too much directed homeward to allow 
him to overlook w^hat was going on, in the forma- 
tion of the new constitution, to which he looked 
with an anxiety and solicitude proportioned to the 
magnitude and importance of the subject. As it will 
forever remain an interesting subject of rational 
curiosity, as well as of political importance, to know 
in what light he viewed the constitution at the time 
of its adoption, w^e will quote from his memoirs and 
correspondence all that appears to bear directly 
upon this great point. He says, page 63 : " Our first 
essay in America, to establish a federative govern- 
ment, had fallen, on trial, very short of its object. 
During the "War of Independence, while the pressure 
of an external enemy hooped us together, and their 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 337 

enterprises kept us necessarily on the alert, the spirit 
of the people, excited by danger, was a supplement 
to the confederation, and urged them to zealous 
exertions, whether claimed by that instrument or 
not ; but when peace and safety were restored, and 
every man became engaged in useful and profitable 
occupation, less attention was paid to the calls of 
Congress. The fundamental defect of the confedera- 
tion was, that Congress was not authorized to act 
immediately on the people, and by its own ofiicers. 
Their power was only requisitory, and those requi- 
sitions were addressed to the several legislatures, to 
be by them carried into execution, without other 
coercion than the moral principle of duty. This 
allowed, in fact, a negative to every legislature on 
every measure proposed by Congress ; a negative so 
frequently exercised in practice, as to benumb the 
action of the federal government, and to render it 
inefficient in its general objects, and more especially 
in pecuniary and foreign concerns. The want, too, 
of a separation of the legislative, executive and 
judiciary functions worked disadvantageously in 
practice. Yet this state of things afiforded a happy 
augury of the future march of our confederacy, 
when it was seen that the good sense and good dis- 
positions of the people, as soon as they perceived 
the incompetence of their first compact, instead of 
12* 



138 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

leaving its correction to insurrection and civil war, 
agreed with one voice to elect deputies to a general 
convention." 

Immediately on his arrival in Paris, Mr. Jefferson 
rented a house in the Cul de Sac Tetebout, near the 
Boulevards, and furnished it in an elegant and 
expensive manner. His household consisted of 
Colonel Humphreys, the secretary of legation, Mr. 
Short, his private secretary, and his daughter, who 
was afterward placed in a convent for her education. 
One of the first projects which occupied his attention 
was the printing of his Notes on Virginia. He had 
refrained from publishing the work in America in 
consequence of the expense. He found that the 
cost in Europe would be only about one-fourth of 
the price in his own country. Two hundred copies 
only were printed at first. One of these fell into the 
hands of a Parisian publisher, who procured a 
French translation to be made, but so imperfectly 
was it done as to deface and deform the work. Mr. 
Jefferson then negotiated with a London bookseller 
to have the volume properly given to the world, and 
thus introduce it to general diffusion. ' 

The Legislature of Virginia had authorized him 
and his colleagues to employ a competent artist to 
execute a statue of General Washington. In the 
performance of this duty, Mr. Jefferson selected a 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 139 

distinguished French artist named Houdon for the 
task. This person visited the United States, in the 
execution of the work, and the result of his labors 
now adorn the Capitol of the State of Virginia. Mr. 
Jefferson also recommended Houdon as a suitable 
person to execute the equestrian statue of Washing- 
ton which Congress had resolved upon. But diffi- 
culties postponed and subsequently entirely defeated 
the realization of this enterprise. 

On the 15th of August, 1785, Mr. Jefferson opened 
his negotiations with the French minister, Count de 
Vergennes, in reference to the establishment of a 
commercial treaty between France and the United 
States. Mr. Adams had previously left Paris for 
London, Dr. Franklin had returned home, and Mr. 
Jefferson was left alone to conduct this important 
and difficult negotiation. He desired to place the 
trade in tobacco on a footing profitable to both 
countries. The policy of the French government in 
reference to this great staple had been exclusive and 
selfish, " contrary to the spirit of trade and to the 
dispositions of merchants to carry a commodity to 
any market where but one person is allowed to buy 
it, and where of course that person fixes its price, 
which the seller must receive or re-export his com- 
modity at the loss of his voyage thither. Experience 
accordingly shows that they carry it to other mar- 



140 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

kets, and that tliey take in exchange the merchan- 
dise of the place where they deliver it." 

The deliberations were long, intricate and tedious. 
Mr. Jefferson was called on to answer many objec- 
tioos to his proposed arrangement. One of these 
was that the treaty would encourage smuggling. 
The answer to this argument was, that " the temp- 
tation to smuggling would be less, when what 
costs fourteen sous may now be sold for sixty, but 
will then sell for but forty." He desired to remove 
all restrictions on commerce, and he thus asserted 
fully and boldly the great democratic principle on 
that subject. 

In a letter to Mr. Adams in July, 1785, he thus 
speaks of the policy of subjecting aliens to higher 
duties than are paid by citizens : " As far as my 
inquiries enable me to judge, France and Holland 
make no distinction of duties between aliens and 
natives. I also rather believe that the other states 
of Europe make none, England excepted, to whom 
this policy, as that of her navigation act, seems pe- 
culiar. The question then is, should we disarm 
ourselves of the power to make this distinction 
against all nations, in order to purchase an exemp- 
tion from the alien duties in England only ? for if 
we put her importations on the footing of native, all 
other nations with whom we treat will have a right 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 141 

to claim the same. I think we should, because 
against other nations who make no distinctions in 
their ports between us and their own subjects, we 
ought not to make a distinction in ours. And if 
the English will agree in like manner to make none, 
we should with equal reason abandon the right as 
against them. I think all the world would gain by 
setting commerce at perfect liberty. I remember 
that when we were digesting the general form of 
our treaty, this proposition to put foreigners and 
natives on the same footing was considered ; and we 
were all three. Dr. Franklin, as well as you and my- 
self, in favor of it." 

In a letter received from Mr. Ja}', he had been 
asked " Whether it would be useful to us to carry all 
our own productions, or none ?" and he evidently 
shows a preference for the Chinese policy. This 
opinion may seem inconsistent with a clear percep- 
tion of the benefits of free trade ; but on this occasion 
he postpones pecuniary gain to what he deemed 
the higher considerations of national policy. 

"We have now," he says, " lands enough to em- 
ploy an infinite number of people in their cultiva- 
tion. Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable 
citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most 
independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to 
their country, and wedded to its liberty and interests 



142 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

by the most lasting bonds. As long, therefore, as 
they can find employment in this line, I would not 
convert them into mariners, artisans, or any thing 
else. But our citizens will find employment in this 
line, till their numbers, and of course their produc- 
tions, become too great for the demand, both inter- 
nal and foreign. This is not the case as yet, and 
probably will not be for a considerable time. As 
soon as it is, the surplus of hands must be turned to 
something else. I should then, perhaps, wish to 
turn them to the sea, in preference to manufactures; 
because, comparing the characters of the two classes, 
I find the former the most valuable citizens. I con- 
sider the class of artificers as the panders of vice, 
and the instruments by which the liberties of a 
country are generally overturned. However, we are 
not free to decide this question on principles of 
theory only. Our people are decided in the opinion 
that it is necessary for us to take a share in the oc- 
cupation of the ocean, and their established habits 
induce them to require that the sea be kept open 
for them, and that that line of policy be pursued 
which will render the use of that element to them as 
great as possible. I think it a duty in those en- 
trusted with the administration of their afliiirs, to 
conform themselves to the decided choice of their 
constituents : and that, therefore, we should in every 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 143 

instance preserve an equality of right to them, in 
the transportation of commodities, in the right of 
fishing, and in the other uses of the sea." 

But he thinks that wars will be the inevitable 
consequence : " That their property will be violated 
on the sea, and in foreign ports their persons will be 
insulted, imprisoned, &c., which outrages we must 
resent. That the only way to deter injustice will be 
to put ourselves, by means of a naval force, in a situ- 
ation to punish it. I think it," he says, " to our 
interest to punish the first insult ; because an insult 
unpunished is the parent of many others." In case 
of a war with England, he thought we should 
abandon the carrying trade, because we could not 
protect it. " Foreign nations must in that case be 
invited to bring us what we want, and take our pro- 
ductions in their own bottoms. This alone could 
prevent the loss of those productions to us, and the 
acquisition of them to our enemy. Our seamen 
might be employed in depredations on their trade." 
He afterward adds : " Our vicinity to their "West 
India possessions and to the fisheries, is a bridle 
which a small naval force on our part would hold in 
the mouths of the most powerful of these countries. 
I hope our Land Oflice will rid us of our debts, and 
that our first attention then will be to the beginning 
of a naval force of some sort. This alone can 



144 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

countenance our people as carriers on the water, and 
I suppose them to be deteriniued to continue such." 

In March, 1787, Mr. Jefferson proceeded to Lon- 
don to assist Mr. Adams in perfecting the treaties 
wliich were then in progress of negotiation with 
Tripoli, Tunis and Portugal, together with that then 
pending with England. Mr. Jefferson at this time 
uttered the conviction to one of his correspondents, 
that notwithstanding the treaty which had already 
been ratified with England and the United States, 
the former was the enemy of the latter ; that her 
hatred was deeply rooted and cordial ; and that 
nothing was wanting with her but the power to 
crush her rebellious colonies from the face of the 
earth. And this opinion seemed founded in truth, 
and was supported by ample evidence furnished by 
the press, the parliament and the court of England 
at that moment. The ulcerations of the king's 
mind seemed to be so great as to hold out no hope 
of reconciliation whatever. On the presentation of 
Messrs. Jeft'erson and Adams, their reception " by 
their majesties" was most ungracious. Before leav- 
ing England, Mr. Jefferson wrote as follows to Mr. 
Jay, then Secretary of Foreign Affairs : 

"With this country nothing is done; and that 
nothing is intended to be done on their part, admits 
not the smallest doubt. The nation is against any 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 145 

change of measures ; tlie ministers are against it; 
some froni principle, others from subserviency ; and 
the king, more than all men, is against it. If we 
take a retrosp.ect to the begin-uing of the present 
reign, we observe that amidst all the changes of 
ministry, no change of measures with respect to 
America ever took place, excepting only at the 
moment of the peace, and the minister of that move- 
ment was immediately removed. Judging of the 
future by the past, I do not expect a change of dis- 
position during the present reign, which bids fair to 
be a long one, as the king is healthy and temperate. 
That he is persevering we know. If he ever changes 
his plan, it will be in consequence of events which 
at present neither himself nor his ministers place 
among those which are probable. Even the opposi- 
tion dare not open their lips in favor of a connection 
with us, so unpopular would be the topic. It is not 
that they think our commerce unimportant to them. 
I find that the merchants have set sufiicient value 
on it. But they are sure of keeping it on their own 
terms. No better proof can be shown of the security 
in which the ministers think themselves on this 
head, than that they have not thought it worth while 
to give us a conference on the subject, though on 
my arrival we exhibited to them our commission, 
observed to them that it would expire on the 12th 
13 



14G THE LIFE AND TIMES 

of next month, and that I had come over on purpose 
to see if any arrangements could be made before 
that time. Of two months which then remained, 
six weeks have elapsed without one scrip of a pen, 
or one word from a minister, except a vague propo- 
sition at an accidental meeting. We availed our- 
selves even of that to make another essay, to extort 
some sort of a declaration from the court; but their 
silence is invincible." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 117 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE CONVENTION AT ANNAPOLIS — SUMMONING OP THE FEDERAL CONTENTION 
— ADOPTION OP THE NEW CONSTITUTION — ORIGIN AND STATE OP POLITICAL 
PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES — JEFPERSON'S OPINIONS IN REPERENCB 
TO THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION — HIS LETTERS ON THE SUBJECT — OPPOS- 
ING OPINIONS OP WASHINGTON — VOX POPULI, VOX DEI — JEFFERSON'S 
TRAVELS IN EUROPE — HIS DIPLOMATIC LABORS — EVENTS OP THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION — JEFFERSON'S OPINIONS IN REFERENCE TO THOSE EVENTS. 

In January, 1786, the General Assembly of Vir- 
ginia resolved to appoint eight commissioners to 
meet those of other States to digest a system of uni- 
form commercial regulations. The convention was 
appointed to meet at Annapolis in the ensuing 
September. "When that time arrived five States only 
sent their representatives to the Convention. These 
were New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land and Virginia, Mr. Dickerson was appointed 
president, and the members proceeded to deliberate. 
TLey found their powers too limited, and their num- 
bers too few to secure any benefit or authority from 
their labors. They accordingly adjourned, but be- 
fore doing so agreed upon a report to be submitted 
to the difierent States, in which they set forth the 
expediency of revising and extending the federal 



148 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

system, and recommended the appointment of depu- 
ties by the various State legislatures to meet at 
Philadelphia on the 2d of May, 1787. On the 21st 
of February, 1787, Congress passed a resolution 
declaring such a Convention expedient. On the 
25th of May deputies from nine States assembled in 
Philadelphia. Washington was elected president. 
Rhode Island subsequently sent her representatives, 
and the whole number composing the Convention 
was fifty-five. After long and careful deliberations 
a Federal Constitution was agreed upon. Alexander 
Hamilton drew the first draft, which was afterward 
adopted with some modifications. The instrument 
was sent to Congress on the 28th of September, 
1787, and by them submitted to the several States 
for their ratification. It was approved by Delaware, 
Pennsylvania and iN ew Jersey in 1787 ; by Georgia, 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Caro- 
lina, New Hampshire, Virginia and New York in 
1788 ; North Carolina ratified it in November, 1789, 
and Rhode Island in May, 1790. 

It was mainly on the ground of " State sovereign- 
ty" that the Constitution reported by this convention 
was opposed on the part of some of the States ; and 
that parties arrayed against federal power entered 
warmly into the discussion of its merits, in the in- 
terim between its promulgation by the Convention 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 149 

and its final ratification by the States. To elucidate 
its merits, and enforce and illustrate its virtues, 
three of the most distinguished friends of Washing- 
ton, noted for their political acumen, profound 
knowledge of jurisprudence, power of argument, 
and force of style, united their labors in a series of 
papers under the title of The Federalist ; the joint 
production of Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and 
James Madison. On the side of State sovereignty, 
popular rights and limited government, were arrayed 
the powerful pens of the great champions of de- 
mocracy ; each party straining every nerve to pre- 
vent or secure its ratification by the States. 

Here again the weight and influence of Washing- 
ton's character secured a result which without the 
authority of his name, and the magic power of his 
virtues, could not have been produced ; for there is 
conclusive reason to believe, that had the State 
conventions been left purely to the naked merits of 
the Constitution, the ratification by the number of 
States required to give it effect could not have been 
obtained. Even Marshall is constrained to admit 
that in some of the adopting States a majority of 
the people were in opposition to it, and were only 
brought to acquiesce in its provisions from a just 
dread of the calamitous consequences of a dismem- 
berment of the Union, rather than from an appro- 
13* 



150 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

batiou of the instrument which had been submitted 
for their sanction; and from a deference to the 
character of Washington, which no other man could 
have inspired. 

Although the Federal Constitution was adopted 
while Mr. Jefferson was residing in Paris, he did 
not view the subject with less interest than if he 
was personally engaged in the direct discussion of 
its provisions. He communicated his sentiments 
very freely to Mr. Madison ; and his letters con- 
stantly express his great confidence in the capacity 
of the people for self-government, and his jealousy 
of their delegates. He was decidedly in favor of 
separating the executive, legislative, and judiciary 
powers. He was opposed to the negative proposed 
to be given on the legislative acts of the several 
States. He said : 

" It fails in an essential character ; the hole and 
the patch should be commensurate. But this pro- 
poses to mend a small hole by covering the whole 
garment. Not more than one out of a hundred 
State acts concern the confederacy. This proposition 
then, in order to give them one degree of power 
which they ought to have, gives them ninety-nine 
more which they ought not to have, upon a pre- 
sumption that they will not exercise the ninety-nine. 
But upon every act there vrill be a preliminary 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 151 

question : Does this act concern tlie confederacy ? 
And was there ever a proposition so plain as to pass 
Congress without debate ? Their decisions are 
almost always wise ; they are like pure metal ; but 
you know of how much dross this is the result." 

He suggested as a better method of accomplishing 
the object aimed at, by conferring such a check on 
the Federal government, that there should be an 
appeal from the State judicature to the Federal, 
where the Constitution controlled the question. In 
reference to the powers of coercion on the States 
which the Articles of Confederation conferred upon 
Congress, he thus writes to Mr. Carrington of Vir- 
ginia, in August, 1787 : " My general plan would 
be to make the States one as to every thing con- 
nected with foreign nations, and several as to every 
thing purely domestic. But with all the imperfec- 
tions of our present government, it is without com- 
parison the best existing, or that ever did exist. Its 
greatest defect is the imperfect manner in which 
matters of commerce have been provided for. It has 
been so often said as to be generally believed, that 
Congress have no power by the confederation to 
enforce any thing; for example, contributions of 
money. It was not necessary to give them that 
power expressly ; they have it by the law of nature. 
When two parties make a compact, there results to 



152 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

each a power of compelling tlie other to execute it. 
Compulsion was never so easy as in our case, where 
a single frigate would soon levy on the commerce 
of any State the deficiency of its contributions ; nor 
more safe than in the hands of Congress, which has 
always shown that it would wait, as it ought to do, 
to the last extremities before it would execute any 
of the powers that are disagreeable." 

To his esteemed friend Mr. Wythe he thus speaks 
of the Federal Convention ; " My own general idea 
was that States should generally preserve their 
sovereignty in whatever concerns themselves alone ;. 
and that whatever may concern another State, or 
any foreign nation, should be made a part of the 
Federal sovereignty. That the exercise of the 
Federal sovereignty should be divided among three 
several bodies — legislative, executive and judiciary, 
as the State sovereignties are ; and that some peace- 
able means should be contrived for the Federal 
head to force compliance on the part of the States." 
Knowing his correspondent's classical predilections, 
in adverting to the recent rupture between the 
Turks and Russians, he adds, " Constantinople la 
the key of Asia — Who shall have it ? is the question. 
I cannot help looking forward to the re-establish- 
ment of the Greeks as a people, and the language 
of Homer becoming again a living language, as 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 153 

among possible events. You have now with you 
Mr. Paradise, who can tell you how easily the mod- 
ern may be improved into the ancient Greek." 

In November, 1787, he thus writes to Mr. Adams 
more fully and explicitly : " How do you like our 
new Constitution? I confess there are things in it 
which stagger all my dispositions to subscribe to 
what such an assembly has proposed. The house 
of federal representatives will not be adequate to 
the management of affairs, either foreign or federal. 
Their president seems a bad edition of a Polish king. 
He may be elected from four years to four years for 
life. Reason and experience prove to us that a 
chief magistrate so continuable is an office for life. 
When one or two generations shall have proved that 
there is an office for life, it becomes on every suc- 
cession worthy of intrigue, of bribery, force, and 
even of foreign interference. It will be of great 
consequence to France and England to have America 
governed by a Galloman or Angloman. Once in 
office, and possessing the military force of the Union 
without the aid or check of a council, he would not 
be easily dethroned, even if the people could be 
induced to withdraw their votes from him. I wish 
at the end of the four years they had made him for 
ever ineligible a second time." 

To Colonel Smith "he says of the Constitution : 



154 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

" There are very good articles in it, and very bad. I 
do not know which preponderate. What we have 
lately read in the history of Holland, in the chapter 
on the stadtholder, would have sufficed to set me 
against a chief magistrate eligible for a long dura- 
tion, if I have ever been disposed toward one : and 
what we had always read of the elections of Polish 
kings, would have forever excluded the idea of one 
9ontinuable for life." Apprehending that arguments 
would be drawn for this enlargement of the powers 
of the Federal Government generally, and of its 
executive in particular, from the recent insurrection 
in Massachusetts, he speaks of it not onlj^ as an un- 
important affair, but as scarcely to be deprecated. 
" God 'forbid," he exclaims, "we should ever be 
twenty years without such a rebellion. The people 
cannot be all, and always well informed. The part 
which is wrong will be discontented in proportion 
to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If 
they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is a 
lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public 
liberty. We have had thirteen States independent 
for eleven years. What country before ever existed 
a century and a half without a rebellion ? And what 
country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not 
warned from time to time that this people preserve 
the spirit of resistance ? Let 'them take arms. The 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 156 

remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and 
pacify them, What signify a few lives lost in a 
century or two ? The tree of liberty must be re- 
freshed from time to time with the blood of patriots 
and tyrants. It is its natural manure. Our Con 
vention has been too much impressed by the insur- 
rection of Massachusetts ; and on the spur of the 
moment, they are setting up a kite to keep the hen- 
yard in order." 

But in a letter to Mr. Madison, in December, he 
discloses his opinions more at length. The features 
of the Constitution of which he approved were the 
self-acting power of the general government, by 
which it could peaceably go on without recurring to 
the State legislatures ; the separation of the legisla- 
tive, executive and judiciary powers ; the powers of 
taxation given to the legislature ; and the election 
of the House of Representatives by the people. He 
doubted however whether the members would be as 
well qualified for their duties when chosen by the 
people, as if they were chosen by the legislature. He 
was captivated by the compromise between the great 
and the small States — the latter having the equality 
they asserted in the Senate ; the former the propor- 
tion of influence they regarded as their right in the 
House of Representatives. He preferred too the 
voting by persons instead of by States j and he 



156 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

approved the qualified negative given to the execu- 
tive, though he would have liked it still better if the 
judiciary had been invested with a similar check. 

Still father light is thrown upon Mr. Jefferson's 
views in reference to the provisions and merits of 
the Federal Constitution, by his letter to Mr. IIop- 
kinson in March, 1788, and by another written to 
Mr. Madison, in which he expresses an opinion 
hostile to the consolidation of the powers of the 
government. To Mr. Madison he says : 

" I own'I am not a friend to a very energetic gov- 
ernment ; it is always oppressive ; it places the 
governors indeed more at their ease, but at the 
expence of the people. The late rebellion in Massa- 
chusetts has given more alarm than I think it should 
have done. Calculate that one rebellion in thirteen 
States in the course of eleven years, is but one for 
each State in a century and a half. No country 
should be so long without one, nor will any degree 
of power in the hands of government prevent insur- 
rections. In England, w^here the hand of power is 
heavier than with us, there are seldom half a dozen 
years without an insurrection. In France, where it 
is still heavier but less despotic, as Montesquieu 
supposes, than in some other countries, and where 
there are always two or three hundred thousand 
men ready to crush insurrections, there have been 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 157 

three in the course of the three years I have heen 
here, in every one of which greater numbers were 
engaged tlian in Massachusetts, and a great deal 
more blood was spilt. In Turkey, where the sole 
nod of the despot is death, insurrections are the 
events of every day. Compare again the ferocious 
depredations of their insurgents with the order, the 
moderation, and the almost self-extinguishment of 
ours, and say finally whether peace is best preserved 
by giving energy to the government or information 
to the people. This last is the most certain and the 
most legitimate engine of government. Educate 
and inform the whole mass of the people, enable 
them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace 
and order, and they will preserve it ; and it requires 
no very high degree of education to convince them 
of this ; they are the only sure reliance for the pres- 
ervation of our liberty. After all, it is my principle 
that the will of the majority should prevail. If they 
approve the proposed Constitution in all its parts I 
shall concur in it cheerfully, in hopes they will 
mend it whenever they shall find it works wrong." 

It may not be uninteresting to place here in op- 
position to these sentiments of Mr, Jefferson the 
opposing views of his illustrious friend Washington 
on the same subject, and in reference to the disputed 
virtues of the same Constitution. In a letter to Mr. 
14 



158 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Jay, Washington thus expresses himself: "Your 
sentiments that our affairs are drawing rapidly to a 
crisis, accord with my own. What the event will 
be is also beyond the reach of my foresight. We 
have errors to correct ; we have probably had too 
good an opinion of human nature in forming our 
confederation. Experience has taught us that men 
will not adopt and carry into execution measures 
the best calculated for their own good without the 
intervention of coercive power. I do not conceive 
we can exist long as a nation without lodging some- 
where a power which will pervade the whole Union 
in as energetic a manner as the authority of the 
State governments extends over the several States. 
To be fearful of investing Congress, constituted as 
that body is, with ample authorities for national 
purposes, appears to me the very climax of popular 
absurdity and madness. Could Congress exert 
them for the detriment of the people, without injur- 
ing themselves in an equal or greater proportion ? 
Are not their interests inseparably connected with 
those of their constituents? Many are of opinion 
that Congress have too frequently made use of the 
suppliant humble tone of requisition in applications 
to the States, when they had a right to assert their 
imperial dignity and command obedience. Be that 
as it may, requisitions are a perfect nullity, where 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 159 

thirteen sovereign, independent, disunited States 
are in the habit of discussing, and refusing or com- 
plying with them at their option. Requisitions are 
actually little better than a jest and a bye-word 
througliout the land. If you tell the legislatures 
they have violated the treaty of peace, and invaded 
the prerogatives of the confederacy, they will laugh 
in your face. "What then is to be done ? Things 
cannot go on in the same train forever. It is much 
to be feared, as you observe, that the better kind of 
people, being disgusted with these circumstances, 
will have their minds prepared for any revolution 
whatever. We are apt to run from one extreme 
into another. To anticipate and prevent disastrous 
contingencies, would be the part of wisdom and 
patriotism." 

Such was the difference of opinion entertained by 
these distinguished men in reference to the vital 
principles of the government. Washington and his 
trusted associate Hamilton placed no extravagant 
confidence in the virtues of the masses ; but thought 
that they needed to be governed and restrained by 
the force of law and the corrective influence of less 
popular and more exclusive elements. Jefi'erson on 
the contrary loudly proclaimed himself a democrat, 
an admirer of the masses of the people. He re- 



160 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

garded the Voxpopuli as the Vox Dei.* He pretended 
the most unbounded confidence in the wisdom, im- 
partiality and justice of the multitude, and regarded 
with suspicion the encroachments of the more 
wealthy, intelligent and cultivated few upon the 
rights of the many. He feared that if the Federal 
government were invested with strong powers it 
would crush the freedom of the several States, in- 
fringe the rights of the State governments, and lead 
to tyranny under another form and name, but not 
less detestable in character, than that of Great 
Britain herself. 

Whatever serious apprehensions Mr. Jefferson 
may have indulged in reference to the operation of 
the Federal Constitution, the steady lapse of time 
has now clearly proved their fallacy. The respective 
powers and prerogatives of the States and of the 
general government were so wisely balanced, so 
evenly proportioned, and so admirably adjusted by 
it, that no storms or convulsions however furious, 
have yet been able to weaken or injure it. It is not 

• This adage, Vox populi, vox Dei, is true, if by the Deity referred 
to, is meant the gods of ancient Greece and Rome ; for very frequently 
the "voice of the people" resembles that of Bacchus, roaring after 
more drink ; or that of Plutus, craving after greater riches ; or that 
of Venus, inviting to impurity and lust; while once in a long while 
you hear a gentle whisper which reminds you of Minerva, and urging 
you to the pursuit and attainment of wisdom ! 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 161 

improbable that had Mr. Jefferson been a member 
of the Federal Convention, he would have suc- 
ceeded in introducing more popular features into 
the Constitution than now exist in it ; but whether 
such a change would have operated more beneficially 
for the interests of the nation, and for the pei-pctuity 
of its power and unity, may well be doubted. 

During the period of Mr. Jefferson's absence in 
Europe, he embraced the opportunity thus afforded 
him, to enjoy the pleasures and advantages of 
foreign travel. He desired to see the great canal of 
Languedoc in order to acquire a knowledge of 
inland navigation, which could afterward be made 
available in his own country. He desired also to 
visit the sea-ports of the Mediterranean, and examine 
there the practical effects of the receut commercial 
regulations which had been established with the 
United States. He left Paris in the beginning of 
March, 1787. He traveled through Champagne, 
Burgundy, Dauphine, Languedoc, and the north of 
Italy. He visited Marseilles, ISTantes, Bordeaux, 
Nismes, Nice, and traveled through a portion of 
Germany and Holland. He returned to Paris on 
the 11th of June. Speaking of this journey to La 
Fayette he says, as illustrative of its great advanta- 
ges and its pleasures : " It will be a great com- 
fort for you to know, from your own inspection, the 
14* 



162 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

condition of all the provinces of your own country, 
and it will be interesting to them, at some future 
day, to be known to you. This is perhaps the only 
moment of your life in which you can acquire that 
knowledge. And to do it most effectually you must 
be absolutely incognito ; you must ferret the people 
out of their hovels as I have done ; look into their 
kettles ; eat their bread ; loll on their beds, under 
pretence of resting yourself, but in fact to find if 
they are soft. You will feel a sublime pleasure in 
the course of this investigation, and a sublimer one 
hereafter, when you shall be able to apply your 
knowledge to the softening of their beds, or the 
throwing a morsel of meat into their kettle of vege- 
tables." 

In July he resumed his negotiations w^ith M. de 
Montmorin, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, in 
reference to the pending treaty between France and 
the United States. While thus engaged in the per- 
formance of the difficult duties of his post, he was 
not an idle observer of the important events which 
Avere then passing around him in France. The great 
Revolution had commenced, and its mighty surges 
were sweeping in furious eddies to and fro, and 
dashing: to the earth the monuments and institutions 
of the past. He expresses himself in the following 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 163 

language in reference to those events, tlie principles 
involved, and the results which they produced : 

" The deed which closed the mortal course of 
these sovereigns I shall neither approve nor con- 
demn. I am not prepared to say that the first 
magistrate of a nation cannot commit treason against 
his country, or is unamenable to its punishment; 
nor yet that where there is no written law, no regu- 
lated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and 
a power in our hands, given for righteous employ- 
ment in maintaining right and redressing wrong. 
Of those who judged the king, many thought him 
willfully criminal ; many that his existence would 
keep the nation in perpetual conflict with the horde 
of kings who would war against a regeneration 
which might come home to themselves, and that it 
were better that one should die than all. I should 
not have voted with this portion of the legislature. 
I should have shut up the queen in a convent, 
putting harm out of her power, and placed the king 
in his station, investing him with limited powers, 
which I verily believe he would have honestly exer- 
cised according to the measure of his understanding. 
In this way no void would have been created, court- 
ing the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor 
occasion given for those enormities which demor- 
alized the nations of the world, and destroyed, and 



164 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

is yet to destroy millions and millions of iuliabitants. 
There are three epochs in history signalized by the 
total extinction of national morality. The first was 
of the successors of Alexander, not omitting him- 
self ; the next the successors of the first Csesar ; the 
third our own age. This was begun by the partition 
of Poland, followed by that of the treaty of Pilnitz ; 
next the conflagration of Copenhagen ; then the 
enormities of Bonaparte, partitioning the earth at 
his will, and devastating it with fire and sword." 

He thus describes the state of France and of the 
French people in the midst of that great struggle. 
"We quote from a letter to Col. Humphreys, dated 
18th March, 1789 : " The change in this country 
since you left it, is such as you can form no idea of. 
The frivolities of conversation have given way en- 
tirely to politics. Men, women and children talk 
nothing else ; and all you know talk a great deal. 
The press groans with daily productions which in 
point of boldness makes an Englishman stare, who 
hitherto has thought himself the boldest of men. A 
complete revolution in this government has within 
the space of two years (for it began with the Nota- 
bles of 1787,) been efiected merely by the force of 
public opinion, aided indeed by the want of money, 
which the dissipations of the court had brought on. 
And this revolution has not cost a single life, unless 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1G5 

we charge it to a little riot lately in Bretagne, which 
began about the price of bread, became afterward 
political, and ended in the loss of four or five lives." 
It may readily be supposed that Mr. Jefferson 
changed his opinion materially of the merits of this 
revolution, of its actors and of its results, before their 
career was concluded. Like many more, he regarded 
it at its coniencement as a " spirit of grace," but 
before its termination, he detested it as a " goblin 
damned !" 



166 THE LIFE AND TIMES 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CONVOCATION OP THE STATES-GENERAL OP FRANCE — JEPFERSON's DE- 
SCRIPTION OF FRENCH PARTIES — JEFFERSON'S PLAN FOR THE SETTLEMENT 
OF THE KINGDOM — HIS RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES — HIS RECEPTION 
AT MONTICELLO — HE IS INVITED BY WASHINGTON TO BECOME SECRETARY 
OP STATE — HE ACCEPTS THE OFFER — HIS VIEWS ON THE QUESTION OP 
PUBLIC CREDIT — HIS REPORTS ON THE COINAGE, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 
— HIS LETTER TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF FRANCE ON THE DEATH OF 
FRANKLIN — HIS VIEWS ON THE UNITED STATES BANK. 

As the thrilling events of the French Revolution 
progressed, Mr. Jefferson took a deeper interest in 
their effects and probable results. He was present 
on the 5th of May, 1789, at the memorable convoca- 
tion of the States-General which had been summoned 
by the unfortunate Louis XYI., and which had not 
been convened before for several centuries. To that 
assembly the whole French nation looked with 
intense emotions of mingled hope and fear. The 
higher orders were justly apprehensive that its 
deliberations and its acts might lead to the destruc- 
tion of their ancient privileges, and to the enfran- 
chisement of the people. The latter anticipated 
that this convocation would become a new era in 
the history of the nation ; that it would be the birth- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOy. 167 

day of liberty ; that the wrongs and despotism of 
the past would be overtQmed ; that the great evils 
which centuries of kingly and princely pomp, ex- 
travagance, tyranny, corruption and pride had. 
produced, would then be reraedied and forever re- 
moved. Xor were they disappointed in the realiza- 
tion of many of their hopes. 

On the opening of the States-General, when scenes 
of imposing religious solemnity and splendor 
adorned the vast cathedral of Xotre-Dame in Paris, 
when the crumbling monarchy once more and for 
the last time displayed its ancient grandeur, and 
when the uprising people and their representatives 
for the first time assumed a portentous air of dig- 
nity and power — in that immense assemblage, when 
all the magnificence of the decrepit monarchy was 
combined with all the intellectual vigor and moral 
grandeur of the indignant nation, represented by 
the men whose names were destined very soon af- 
terward to acquire a world-wide but a bloody and 
revolting celebrity — in that assemblage Jefierson 
mingled, and surveyed the proceedings with a scru- 
tinizing eye. Robespierre and Dantoii were there, 
though then unknown to fame. Xapoleon Bona- 
parte was also there, though still more insignificant 
and obscure. And he who had penned the great 
charter of a nation's freedom, which had already 



168 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

l)een bought and secured by a nation's blood, looked 
on, and congratulated himself there that his own 
land had already happily passed through the crisis 
which was then just commencing in the country of 
his sojourn.* His opinion of the state of parties in 
France may be inferred from the following letter, 
addressed to Mr. Jay : "1. The aristocrats^ compre- 
hending the higher members of the clergy, military, 
nobility, and the parliaments of the whole kingdom. 
This forms a head without a body. 2. The moderate 
royalists, who wish for a constitution nearly similar 
to that of England. 3. The republicans, who are 
willing to let their first magistracy be hereditary, 
but to make it very subordinate to the legislature, 
and to have that legislature consist of a single 
chamber. 4. The faction of Orleans. The second 
and third descriptions are composed of honest, well- 
meaning men, differing in opinion only, but both 
wishing the establishment of as great a degree of 
liberty as can be preserved. They are considered as 
constituting the patriotic part of the Assembly, and 
they are supported by the soldiery of the army, the 
soldiery of the clergy, that is to say, the cures and 



• During Mr. Jefferson's absence in Paris, the University in Har- 
vard conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. This 
title, like other literary and scientific titles, was worth something at 
that period of our country's history. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 169 

monks, the dissenters and part of the nobility which 
is small, and the substantial Bourgeoisie of the whole 
nation." 

During the progress of events, Mr. Jefferson was 
requested by La Fayette to suggest a plan for the 
guidance of tlie revolutionists, and to give him his 
advice as to the best policy to be pursued. He 
suggested that the king in a seance royale should 
come forward with a charter in his hand, to be 
signed by himself and all the members of the three 
Orders ; and that this charter should contain the five 
great points which the Resultat of December offered 
on the part of the king, the abolition of the pecu- 
niary privileges of the higher orders, the assumption 
of the national debt, and a grant of the sums asked 
from the nation. The charter of rights which 
Jefferson drew up for La Fayette consisted of the 
following ten articles : 

"1. The States-General shall assemble uncalled 
on the first day of November annually, and shall 
remain together so long as they shall see cause. 
They shall regulate their own elections and proceed- 
ings ; and until they shall ordain otherwise, their 
elections shall be in the form observed in the pres- 
ent year, and shall be triennial. 

" 2. The States-General alone shall levy money on 
the nation, and shall appropriate. 
15 



170 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

"3. Laws shall be made by the States-General only, 
with the consent of the king. 

" 4. No person shall be restrained of his liberty but 
by regular process from a court of justice, authorized 
by a general law. (Except that a noble may be 
imprisoned by order of a court of justice, on the 
prayer of twelve of his nearest relations.) On com- 
plaint of an unlawful imprisonment to any judge 
whatever, he shall have the prisoner immediately 
brought before him, and shall discharge him if his 
imprisonment be unlawful. The officer in whose 
custody the prisoner is shall obey the orders of the 
judge, and both judge and officer shall be responsi- 
ble, civilly and criminally, for a failure of duty 
herein. 

" 5. The military shall be subordinate to the civil 
authority. 

" 6. Printers shall be liable to legal prosecution for 
printing and publishing false facts, injurious to the 
party prosecuting ; but they shall be under no other 
restraint. 

" 7. All pecuniary privileges and exemptions en- 
joyed by any description of persons are abolished. 

"8. All debts already contracted by the king are 
hereby made the debts of the nation, and the faith 
thereof is pledged for their payment in due time. 

" 9. Eighty millions of livres are now granted to 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 171 

the king, to be raised by loan, and reimbursed by 
the nation ; and the taxes heretofore paid shall con- 
tinue to be paid to the end of the present year and 
no longer. 

" 10. The States-General shall now separate, and 
meet again on the 1st day of November next." 

Having concluded his diplomatic duties in the 
French capital, Mr. Jefferson left Paris on the 26th 
of September, 1789. He had resided in France 
more than five years. He had been addressed pre- 
vious to his return, by Mr. Madison, who had in- 
quired of him whether he would accept any 
appointment at home ; but in reply he had stated 
that he desired retirement; that all his appointments 
to ofiice had been contrary to his own wishes (a 
declaration which was not strictly true) ; and that his 
object in withdrawing from the French mission was 
to resume his agricultural pursuits, and the enjoy- 
ment of total seclusion and rest. 

He left Havre on the 8th of October, accompanied 
by his two daughters. He journeyed to Cowes, 
where he had taken passage in a vessel for Virginia. 
He was delayed at the Isle of AVight by contrary 
weather until the 22d. In consequence of a special 
application to Mr. Pitt from Colonel Trumbull, his 
baggage was exempted from search by the officers 
of the customs. His return voyage was prosperous ; 



172 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

and on the thirtieth day after his embarcation he 
landed at Norfolk. The dangers of the voyage 
clustered around its termination. As the vessel 
approached the coast a heavy mist prevailed and hid 
the land from view. For three days they beat about, 
looking for a pilot in vain. At length the captain 
boldly ran the vessel within the capes, and thus 
avoided the fury of a storm which in a few hours 
afterward swept the coast. Subsequent to this the 
vessel took fire, but the flames were subdued with- 
out any damage to Mr. JeflPerson's baggage and 
papers. 

Having disembarked he journeyed toward Monti- 
cello. There being no public conveyance at that 
time in that region, he was indebted to his friends 
for the means of reaching home. At Effington, on 
the way, he received a letter from General Wash- 
ington inviting him to accept the office of Secretary 
of State. At length, on the 23d of December, he 
arrived at Monticello. His daughter, Mrs. Eandolph, 
thus describes the scene which ensued : " The 
negroes discovered the approach of the carriage as 
soon as it reached Shadwell, and such a scene I never 
witnessed in my life. They collected in crowds 
around it, and almost drew it up the mountain by 
hand. The shouting, &c., had been sufficiently 
obstreperous before, but the moment the carriage 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 173 

arrived on the top it reached the climax. "When 
the door of the carriage was opened, thej received 
him in their arms and bore him into the house, 
crowding around and kissing his hands and feet — 
some blubbering and crpng — others laughing. It 
appeared impossible to satisfy their eyes, or their 
anxiety to touch and even kiss the very earth that 
bbre him. These were the first ebullitions of joy 
for his return after a long absence, which they would 
of course feel, but it is perhaps not out of place to 
add here that they were at all times very devoted in 
their attachment to him. They believed him to be 
one of the greatest, and they knew him to be one of 
the best of men and kindest of masters. They 
spoke to him freely, and applied confidingly to him 
in all their difliculties and distresses ; and he watched 
over them in sickness and in health ; interested 
himself in all their concerns; advising^ them, and 
showing esteem and confidence in the good, and in- 
dulgence to all." 

Immediately after his return home, Mr. Jefierson's 
eldest daughter Martha was married to Mr. Thomas 
M. Randolph, eldest son of the Tuckahoe branch of 
the Randolphs. This gentleman afterward became 
Governor of Virginia. He had first seen Miss Jef- 
ferson during a visit to Paris. At the same period 
Mr. Jeflerson received a second letter from the 
15* 



174 THE urK and timks 

rros'ulout urg'ini;' his aeooptanoe of tho otUoo of 
Hoci'olurv i>f Stato, loavius;' hiiu at tho same timo at 
liboi'tv to lolK»\v his own liu rmatioi\.s. Aftor aomo 
Ueliboratioti ho aoooi>toil tho a[>[>omtuioiit. llo K'ft 
MontiooUo for Now York, whoro tho Fotleml Ciov- 
ernmont was thou K>oatoil, on tho 1st of Maivl\, 
17iH>. 

At Phihulolphui ho oaHod on l^r. Franklin, wlio 
>Yas tluMi on his doath-hod, and who omivorsod witli 
him with tho rosignation ot' a phih'isopher, and tlio 
animation of an ontliiisiast for lihorty. The dootor 
oontuKnl to him a manusoript n\onioir of his life, 
whioh Mr. JotVorson, undor a mistaken idea of tho 
trust reposed in him, afterward delivered into the 
hands of his, grandson, William Temple Franklin. 
This memoir Mr. Jetlerson represents as eontaiuing 
vivluable details ; among others he thus relates a 
very important one: " I remember," he says, speak- 
ing of seeret negotiations ot' Franklin to accommo- 
date mattei*s between the Colonies and Great Britain, 
^'that Lord North's ans\vei*s were dry, unyielding, 
in the spirit of unconditional submission, and be- 
trayed an absolute inditlerenoe to the ocourrenee of 
a rupture ; and he said to the mediators distinctly, 
at last, that 'u rebellion teas not to he deprecated on the 
part of Crreat Britain ; that the eonjisoations it would 
produce u^iild provide for mani/ of th<>ir friends.' This 



or THOMAS JErrrE,50ir. 175 

ftx.pr€«i((Mi was, reported bv the mediatore to Dr. 
Fratikljii. Here the negotiation stopped." 

Mr. Jefferson r^jached Xew York on the 2C>th of 
Maj^cia, while Congre^ "was in sesgion, and eom- 
m^aoed hie duties as tiie second officer in the gor- 
emment. He was associated with Alexander 
Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasurr, General 
EJQOz as Secretani' of War, Edmnnd Randolph as 
Attomev-GeneraL The second session of Congreee 
under the administration of Washington eommeneed 
on the 4th of Januarr, 1790. Its first deliV>eration« 
were in reference to the elaborate and able report 
of Mr. Hamilton on Uhe subject of the public credit, 
which had been submitted to Congress. That report 
laid the foundation for a new divigion of parties, 
which continued to prevail during four successive 
administrations. This report contended that the 
debts of the individual States contracted during the 
Revolution should be assumed bj the general gov- 
ernment : that the United States were bound to pay 
the interest as well as the principal of these public 
debts ; that no distinction should be made between 
original holders of the evidences of these debts and 
those who had purchased them at a discount ; and 
to diminish the part due to domestic creditors, not 
by greater taxation, but by giving them a satigfao- 
tory equivalent. This report cabled forth the most 
spirited debates in Congress. Mr. Jefferson arrived 



176 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

at the seat of government in the midst of it. His 
views of the state of the controversy may be gathered 
from the following extract from his writings : 

" Here certainly I found a state of things which 
of all I had ever contemplated, I the least expected. 
I had left France in the first year of her revolution, 
in the fervor of natural rights and zeal for reforma- 
tion. My conscientious devotion to these rights 
could not be heightened, but it had been aroused 
and excited by daily exercise. The President re- 
ceived me cordially, and my colleagues and the 
circle of principal citizens apparently with welcome. 
The courtesies of dinner-parties given me, as a 
stranger newly arrived among them, placed me at 
once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe 
the wonder and mortification with which, the table 
conversation filled me. Politics were the chief topic, 
and a preference of kingly over republican govern- 
ment was evidently the favorite sentiment. An 
apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite ; and I 
found myself for the most part the only advocate on 
the republican side of the question, unless among 
the guests there chanced to be some member of that 
party from the legislative houses. Hamilton's 
financial system had then passed. It had two ob- 
jects ; 1st. As a puzzle, to exclude popular under- 
standing and inquiry ; 2d. As a machine for the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 177 

corruption of the legislature ; for he avowed the 
opinion that man could be governed by one of two 
motives only, force or interest ; force, he observed, 
in this country was out of the question, and the in- 
terest therefore of the members must be laid hold 
of, to keep the legislature in unison with the execu- 
tive. And with grief and shame it must be ac- 
knowledged that his machine was not without effect; 
that even in this, the birth of our government, some 
members were found sordid enough to bend their 
duty to their interests, and to look after personal 
rather than public good." 

Whatever may have been the mercenary motives 
of some members of Congress who supported the 
policy recommended in Mr. Hamilton's report, it is 
absurd to charge him w^ith a design to corrupt the 
legislature, or to promote his personal interests. The 
whole history of this memorable era proves that one 
of the most disinterested men, possessing the stern- 
est integrit}^ and honesty of purpose, who ever moved 
amid its stirring scenes, was the Secretary of the 
Treasury. 

A compromise was at length effected between the 
contending factions, in reference to which Mr. 
Jefferson speaks as follows : 

" This game was over, and another was on the 
carpet at the moment of my arrival ; and to this I 



178 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

was most . ignorantly and innocently made to hold 
the candle. This fiscal manoeuvre is well known 
by the name of the Assumption. Independently 
of the debts of Congress, the States had during 
the war contracted separate and heavy debts ; and 
Massachusetts particularly, in an absurd attempt, 
absurdly conducted, on theBritish post of Penobscot; 
and the more debt Hamilton could rake up the more 
plunder for his mercenaries. This money, whether 
wisely or foolishly spent, was pretended to have 
been spent for general purposes, and ought therefore 
to be paid from the general purse. But it was ob- 
jected that nobody knew what these debts were, 
what their amount, or what their proofs. No mat- 
ter; we will guess them to be twenty millions. But 
of these twenty millions we do not know how much 
should be reimbursed to one State, or how much to 
another. No matter; we will guess. And so 
another scramble was set on foot among the several 
States, and some got much, some little, some 
nothing. But the main object was obtained, the 
phalanx of the treasury was reinforced by additional 
recruits. 

" This measure produced the most bitter and angry 
contests ever known- in Congress, before or since 
the union of the States. I arrived in the midst of 
it. But a stranger to the ground, a stranger to the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 170 

actors on it, so long absent as to have lost all famil- 
iarity with the subject, and as yet unaware of its 
object, I took no concern in it. The great and try- 
ing question however was lost in the House of 
Representatives. So high were the feuds excited 
by this subject, that on its rejection, business was 
suspended. Congress met and adjourned from day 
to day without doing any thing ; the parties being 
too much out of temper to do business together. 
The eastern members particularly, who with Smith 
from South Carolina were the principal gamblers in 
these scenes, threatened a secession and dissolution. 
Hamilton was in despair. As I was going to the 
president's one day, I met him in the street. He 
walked me backward and forward before the 
president's door for half an hour. He painted pa- 
thetically the temper into which the legislature had 
been wrought ; the disgust of those who were called 
the creditor States ; the danger of the secession of 
their members, and the separation of the States. He 
observed that the members of the administration 
ought to act in concert ; that though this question 
was not of my department, yet a common duty 
should make it a common concern ; that the presi- 
dent was the centre on which all administrative 
questions ultimately rested, and that all of us should 
rally around him and support with joint efforts 



ISO THE LIFE AND TIMES 

measures approved by him ; and that the question 
having been lost by a small majority only, it was 
probable that an appeal from me to the judgment 
and discretion of some of my friends might effect a 
change in the vote, and the machine of government, 
now suspended, might be again set in motion. 

" I told him that I was really a stranger to the 
whole subject ; that not having yet informed myself 
of the system of finance adopted, I knew not how 
far this was a necessary sequence ; that undoubtedly 
if its rejection endangered a dissolution of our Union 
at this incipient stage, I should deem that the most 
unfortunate of all consequences, to avert which all 
partial and temporary evils should be yielded. I 
proposed to him, however, to dine with me the next 
day, and I would invite another friend or two, bring 
them into conference together, and I thought it im- 
possible that reasonable men, consulting together 
coolly, could fail by some mutual sacrifices of opin- 
ion, to form a compromise which was to save the 
Union. The discussion took place. I could take 
no part in it but an exhortatory one, because I was 
a stranger to the circumstances which should gov- 
ern it. But it was finally agreed that whatever im- 
portance had been attached to the rejection of this 
proposition, the preservation of the Union and of 
concord among the States was more important, and 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 181 

that therefore it would be better that the vote of 
rejection should be rescinded, to effect which some 
members should change their votes. But it was 
observed that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to 
the Southern States, and that some concomitant 
measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to 
them. There had before been propositions to fix 
the seat of government either at Philadelphia or at 
Georgetown, on the Potomac ; and it was thought 
tlia^by giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and 
to Georgetown permanently afterward, this might 
as an anodyne calm in some degree the ferment 
which might be excited by the other measure alone. 
So two of the Potomac members (White and Lee, 
but White with a revulsion of stomach almost con- 
vulsive) agreed to change their votes, and Hamilton 
undertook to carry the other point. In doing this, 
the influence he had established over the eastern 
members, with the agency of Robert Morris with 
those of the middle States, effected his side of the 
engagement; and so the assumption was passed, 
and twenty millions of stock divided among favored 
States, and thrown in as a pabulum to the stock- 
jobbing herd. This added to the number of vota- 
ries to the treasury, and made its chief the master of 
every vote in the legislature which might give to 

16 



182 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

tlic government the direction suited to his political 
views." 

During the progress of 1790 Mr. Jefferson made 
two reports to Congress on subjects referred by 
them to him. One of these was in reference to a 
proposition made by an individual in England to 
furnish the United States with a supply of copper 
coinage. On this subject he held the doctrine that 
coinage being an attribute of sovereignty, it should 
not be submitted to another sovereign ; that to ex- 
ercise it in a foreign country would be on many 
accounts inconvenient, and was without an exam- 
ple ; and he therefore opposed the proposition and 
recommended that a Mint be established at home. 

The other report had reference to the subject of 
weights and measures. It recommended the pen- 
dulum in the latitude of 45° north, as the standard 
of lineal and other measures, and rain water at a 
given temperature as the standard of weight. It 
further recommended a system of decimal divisions 
both for measures and weights. The report on the 
coinage was adopted. The other seems never to 
have received any action of the legislature, and the 
reform on that subject remains to this day one of 
the desiderata of federal legislation. 

In March, 1791, Mr. Jefferson, by order of the 
President, addressed a letter to the President of the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 183 

National Assembly of France in answer to their 
decree of the 11th of June, paying a just tribute to 
the memory and the virtues of Dr. Franklin, then 
recently deceased. A portion of that letter is as 
follows : 

" That the loss of such a citizen should be la- 
mented by us, among whom he lived, whom he so 
long and eminently served, and who feel their 
country advanced and honored by his birth, life and 
labors, was to be expected. But it remained for the 
National Assembly of Fratice to set the first exam- 
ple of the representatives of one nation doing hom- 
age, by a public act, to the private citizen of another, 
and by withdrawing arbitrary lines of separation, to 
reduce into one fraternity the good and the great, 
wherever they have lived or died. 

" That these separations may disappear between 
us in all times and circumstances, and that the union 
of sentiment which mingles our sorrows on this oc- 
casion may continue long to cement the friendsliip 
and the interests of our two nations, is our constant 
prayer. "With no one is it more sincere than with 
him who, in being charged with the honor of con- 
veying a public sentiment, is permitted that of 
expressing the homage of profound respect, with 
which he is, sir, your most obedient and most hum- 
ble servant." 



184 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Another question which was warmly discussed in 
the cabinet between the great opposing leaders of 
the federal and republican parties — Hamilton and 
Jefferson — was that of the incorporation of the 
United States Bank. 

That measure having produced a deep excite- 
ment in both Houses of Congress, as involving fun- 
damental principles of constitutional power, natu- 
rally awakened the patriotism of Washington, which 
induced him to pause and deliberate with his usual 
coolness and ability, before he decided upon its final, 
adoption. For this purpose he requested a written 
investigation of the merits of the question from Mr. 
Jefferson, in common with the other members of his 
cabinet ; in complying with which this statesman 
exhibited a power of reasoning not inferior in bril- 
liancy to that solidity of principle upon which he 
rested as the foundation of his arguments. Simple, 
broad, and comprehensive in his premises, he went 
upon the axiom that a limited constitution, restricted 
by special grants of power, could not authorize a 
sovereign exercise of authority, which no part of 
that instrument allowed or granted in express terms; 
that the power to create a national bank was in its 
very nature one too vast and influential over the whole 
rights and interests of the people, to be either a 
necessary or an incidental power to others expressly 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 185 

granted ; and that it were better for the harmony 
and success of the whole Union, to forego the exer- 
cise of a doubtful power than to breed endless dis- 
sensions and heart-burnings, by assuming an 
authority which could not be sustained by the letter 
of the Constitution, to observe which the govern- 
ment was bound in the exercise of substantive 
powers. In this elucidation of one of the most 
controverted features of the federal government, he 
was decidedly opposed by the eloquent and brilliant 
exposition of Alexander Hamilton, who reasoning 
on opposite principles, and leaning to a government 
of more comprehensive and energetic nature, 
naturally carried with him the already prepossessed 
judgment of the President. But neither the force 
of Hamilton's reasoning nor the hourly augmenting 
weight of the influence of Washington himself, have 
been able to settle this disputed question ; while 
the edifice of free principles erected by the republi- 
can logic of Jefferson will forever remain a monu- 
ment of that inflexible and uncompromising de- 
mocracy which made him so emphatically the man 
of the people ; and which have consecrated his 
opinions upon this subject as a perpetual rallying 
point for the advocates of free principles. State rights, 
and the equality of privileges throughout every 
portion of this great confederacy. 
16* 



186 THE LIFE AND TIMES 



CHAPTER X. 

DISPUTES IN THE CABINET OP WASHINGTON — JEFFERSON's STATEMENT OP 

Hamilton's views — Hamilton's superiority — mr. jefperson's pub- 

POOE OP retiring — GILES' RESOLUTIONS — JEFFERSON'S VINDICATION OP 
HIMSELF — HIS PROFOUND AND ABLE OPINION IN REFERENCE TO THE WAR 
WITH FRANCE — CONDUCT OF GENET, THE FRENCH MINISTER — THE LITTLE 
DEMOCRAT — GENET'S RECALL — JEFFERSON'S DESCRIPTION OF HIS ASSO- 
CIATES IN THE CABINET. 

The great difference of sentiment which existed 
between Jefferson and Hamilton rendered it im- 
possible that much harmony should exist between 
them, either in the deliberations of the cabinet or 
in the active measures of the administration. These 
differences increased with the progress of time, and 
gradually took the form of personal antagonism and 
hostility. In April, 1791, Washington visited the 
Southern States ; and during his absence it became 
necessary for the members of the cabinet to consult 
together without the presence and the restraining in- 
fluence of the President. On one occasion Mr. 
Jefferson invited Mr. Adams, the Vice President, 
Mr. Hamilton, General Knox and Mr. Randolph to 
dinner; and Mr Jefferson has left on record an 
account of the opinions uttered by Mr. Hamilton on 
(186) 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1R7 

tliat occasion, for tlie purpose of illustrating the 
difterence of sentiment existing between them, and 
to show what Mr. Jefferson held to be the anti- 
republican doctrines entertained by his rival. Jef- 
ferson went so far as to charge Hamilton with being 
in favor of a union with England, and that he 
thought the death of Washington w^ould prove the 
termination of the existence of the Federal Govern- 
ment. But of the truth of these charges there is 
not the slightest evidence. The following statement 
of the opinions expressed by Mr. Hamilton on the 
occasion above referred to, possesses great interest ; 
and for the truth of the narrative, Mr. Jeifersoa 
solemnly says, " I attest the God who made me !" 

" After the cloth was removed and our question 
argued and dismissed, conversation began on other 
matters, and by some circumstance was led to the 
British constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed, 
* Purge that constitution of its corruption, and give 
to its popular branch equality of representation, and 
it would be the most perfect constitution ever de- 
vised by the wit of man.' Hamilton paused and 
said, ' Purge it of its corruption, and give to its 
popular branch equality of representation, and it 
would become an impracticable government ; as it 
stands at present, with all its supposed defects, it is 
the most perfect government which ever existed.' 



188 THE LIFE AND TIME9 

And this was assuredly the exact line which separ- 
ated the political creeds of these two gentlemen. 
The one was for two hereditary branches and an 
honest elective one ; the other for an hereditary 
king, with a house of lords and commons corrupted 
to his will, and standing between him and the peo- 
ple. Hamilton was indeed a singular character. Of 
acute understanding, disinterested, honest and hon- 
orable in all private transactions, amiable iu society, 
and duly valuing virtue in private life, yet so be- 
witched and perverted by the British example, as to 
be under thorough conviction that corruption was 
essential to the government of a nation. Mr. Adams 
had originally been a republican. The glare of 
royalty and nobility, during his mission to England, 
had made him believe their fascination a necessary- 
ingredient in government ; and Shay's rebellion, not 
sufficiently understood where he then was, seemed 
to prove that the absence of want and oppression 
was not a sufficient guarantee of order. His book 
on the American Constitution having made known 
his political bias, he was taken up by the monarchial 
federalists in his absence, and on his return to the 
United States he was" by them made to believe that 
the general disposition of our citizens was favorable 
to monarchy. He here wrote his ' Davila' as a sup- 
plement to the former work, and his election to the 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 189 

Presidency confirmed him in his errors. Innumerable 
addresses too, artfully and industriously poured in 
upon him, deceived him into a confidence that he was 
on the pinnacle of popularity when the gulf was 
yawning at his feet which was to swallow up him and 
kis deceivers. For when General Washington was 
"withdrawn, these energumeiii of royalism, kept in 
check hitherto by the dread of his honesty, his firm- 
ness, his patriotism, and the authority of his name, 
now mounted on the car of state, and free from control, 
like Phaeton on that of the sun, drove headlong and 
wild, looking neither to right nor left, nor regarding 
any thing but the objects they were driving at, until 
displaying these fully, the eyes of the nation were 
opened, and a general disbandment of them from 
the public councils took place." 

On another occasion Mr. Jeflerson writes that Mr. 
Hamilton having condemned Mr, Adams' writings, 
and particularly "Davila," as being opposed to the 
true policy of Washington's administration, pro- 
ceeded to say : 

" ' I own it is my opinion, though I do not publish 
it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present government 
is not that which will answer the ends of society, by 
giving stability and protection to its rights, and that 
it will probably be found expedient to go into the 
British form. However, since we have undertaken 



190 THE LIFE AND TIxMES 

the experiment, I am for giving it a fair course, 
whatever mj'' expectations may be. The success 
indeed, so far, is greater than I had expected, and 
therefore at present success seems more probable 
than it had done heretofore, and there are still other 
and other stages of improvement which, if the pres- 
ent does not succeed, may be tried, and ought to be 
tried before we give up the republican form alto- 
gether; for that mind must be really depraved 
which would not prefer the equality of political 
rights, which is the foundation of pure republican- 
ism, if it can be obtained consistently with order. 
Therefore whoever by his writings disturbs the 
present order of things is really blamable, however 
pure his attentions may be, and he was sure Mr. 
Adams' were pure.' This is the substance of a 
declaration made in much more lengthy terms, and 
which seemed to be more formal than usual for a 
private conversation between two, and as if intended 
to qualify some less guarded expression which had 
been dropped on former occasions. Thomas Jefler- 
son has committed it to writing in the moment of 
A. Hamilton's leaving the room." 

Yet it is but justice to Mr. Jefferson to say that, 
notwithstanding his frequent collisions with Mr. 
Hamilton, and the personal and political rivalry 
which existed between them, he possessed magna- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 191 

nimity enough on some occasions to render a tribute 
of praise to his great talents. Thus at a subsequent 
period, in reference to the treaty with England ne- 
gotiated by Mr. Jay, he says : 

" Hamilton is really a Colossus to the anti-repub- 
lican party ; without numbers he is a host within 
himself. They have got themselves into a defile, 
where they might be finished ; but too much 
security on the republican part will give time to his 
talents and indefatigableness to extricate them. In 
truth when he comes forward there is nobody but 
yourself who can meet him. 

" The merchants were certainly (except those of 
them who are English) as open-mouthed at first 
against the treaty as any. But the general expres- 
sion of indignation has alarmed them for the 
strength of the government. They have feared the 
shock would be too great, and have chosen to tack 
about and support both treaty and government, 
rather than risk the government." He thus con- 
cludes : " There appears a pause at present in the 
public sentiment which may be followed by a revul- 
sion. This is the eflect of the desertion of the 
merchants, of the president's chiding answer to 
Boston and Richmond, of the writings of Curtius 
and Caruillus, and of the quietism into which people 
naturally fall after first sensations are over. For 



192 THE LirE AND TIMES 

God's sake take up your pen and give a fundamental 
reply to Curtius and Camillus." 

In consequence of the dissensions in the cabinet 
Mr. Jefferson began to contemplate, as early as 
February, 1792, his retirement from the post which 
he held in it. He also perceived that notwithstand- 
ing his utmost efforts to undermine his influence, 
Hamilton really controlled the judgment and mea- 
Bures of the President. He thought the influence 
and patronage attached to the Treasury department 
absorbed that of all the other branches of the gov- 
ernment, and overshadowed them. The truth was, 
that prodigious genius of Hamilton, his indefatigable 
energy, the versatility of his powers, his elaborate 
reports, his unrivalled eloquence, his facility in the 
disposal of business, and the confidence of the 
nation in his patriotism, rendered him the command- 
ing spirit in the administration. IsTotwithstanding 
the profound though less shining abilities of Jeffer- 
son, the greater glory belonged to his rival. 

Washington received the intimation of his pro- 
posed witlidrawal from Mr. Jefferson with sincere 
regret. His presence in the cabinet gave stronger 
unity to the nation. He represented the vast re- 
publican or democratic body in its deliberations, and 
he was a pillar of strength to the administration. 
"Washington endeavored to dissuade him from the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 193 

execution of his purpose, and succeeded so far as to 
induce him to postpone it for a time. The differ- 
ences, however, which divided the cabinet were not 
healed. On the 23d of January, 1792, Mr. Giles 
introduced resolutions into the House of Represen- 
tatives, designed to inculpate Mr. Hamilton as 
Secretary of the Treasury. These resolutions were 
proposed at the instance and with the approbation 
of Mr. Jefferson. In reference to these resolutions, 
Mr. Jefferson thus writes in his diary, under date of 
March 2d : 

"He, (Mr. Giles,) and one or two others, were 
sanguine enough to believe that the palpableuess of 
these resolutions rendered it impossible the house 
could reject them. Those who knew the composi- 
tion of the house : 1, of bank directors ; 2, holders 
of bank-stock; 3, stock-jobbers; 4, blind devotees ; 

5, ignorant persons, who did not comprehend them ; 

6, lazy and good-humored persons, who compre- 
hended and acknowledged them, yet were too lazy 
to examine, or unwilling to pronounce censure ; the 
persons who knew these characters foresaw that the 
three first descriptions making one-third of the 
house, the three latter would make one-half of the 
residue; and of course that they would be rejected 
by a majority of two to one. But they thought that 
even this rejection would do good, by showing the 

. 17 



194 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

public the desperate and abandoned dispositions 
with which their affairs were cod ducted. The reso- 
lutions were proposed, and nothing spared to pre- 
sent them in the fullness of demonstration. There 
were not more than three or four who voted other- 
wise than had been expected." 

The result of this investigation was favorable 
to the integrity of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
and in favor of the wisdom and prudence of the 
measures which he had recommended. This result 
had not tended to increase the kindness of feeling 
between the heads of the two great parties. Hos- 
tilities and recriminations continued between them. 
Mr. Jefferson thus defends himself against some 
anonymous attacks in the newspaper, which he 
attributed, without any evidence to support the sup- 
position, to the agency of Mr. Hamilton : 

" He charges me — 1. With having written letters 
from Europe to my frien'ds to oppose the present 
Constitution, while depen'diug. 2. With a desire of 
not paying the pubhc debt. 3. With setting up a 
paper to decry and slander the government. 

" The first charge is most false. I approved as 
much of the Constitution as most persons, and more 
of it was disapproved by my accuser than by me, and 
of its parts most vitally republican. My objection 
to the Constitution was the want of a bill of rights 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 195 

— Colonel Hamilton's that it wanted a king and 
house of lords. The sense of America has approved 
my objection, and added the bill of rights, and not 
the king and lords. I wanted the presidential term 
longer and not renewable ; ' my country thought 
otherwise and I have acquiesced.' As to the public 
debt, he emphatically denies the charge, says he 
wishes " the debt paid off to-morrow ; Colonel 
Hamilton never ; but always to remain in existence 
for him to manage and corrupt the legislature." 

IS'otwithstanding his repeatedly expressed deter- 
mination to retire from office, Mr. Jefierson accepted 
a renewal of his appointment as Secretary of State 
under "Washington's second administration, which 
commenced on the 4th of March, 1793. War having 
been declared by France against England, the policy 
of the United States under these circumstances 
toward the belligerents became involved in much 
difficulty. Washington immediately submitted to 
each member of his cabinet a series of propositions 
in writing on the subject. These same propositions 
were afteward discussed in the cabinet. The main 
question was, whether the existing treaties with 
France were then binding on the United States ? 
The paper drawn up by Mr. Jelterson on this occa- 
Bion is remarkable for the originality of its views, 
the vigor of its reasoning, and its general ability. 



196 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

At this crisis M. Genet was appointed French 
minister to the United States. In reference to this 
person, Mr. Jefferson says : 

" Never, in my opinion, was so calamitous an 
appointment made as that of the present minister of 
France here. Hot-headed, all imagination, no judg- 
ment, passionate, disrespectful, and even indecent 
tow^ard the President in his written as well as his 
verbal communications before Congress or the public, 
they will excite indignation. He renders my posi- 
tion immensely difficult. He does me justice per- 
sonally ; and giving him time to vent himself, and 
become more cool, I am on a footing to advise him 
freely, and he respects it ; but he will break out 
again on the very first occasion, so that he is inca- 
pable of correcting himself. To complete our mis- 
fortune, we have no channel through which we can 
correct the irritating representations he may make." 

Genet insisted that French cruisers should have 
the right to bring their prizes into American ports, 
under the treaty of 1778. He also asserted that 
French citizens possessed the right to arm and equip 
their ships of war in American ports. These posi- 
tions Mr. Jefferson denied, and he held that the 
assertion of the right of sovereignty by a neutral 
nation in its own ports become a duty, whenever it 
was violated to the injury of a belligerent. The sale 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 197 

of vessels taken by French cruisers was stopped at 
Philadelphia by the government. Genet immedi- 
ately and insolently demanded restitution, damages 
and interest. He also demanded the payment of the 
debt due by the United States to France, amounting 
to two million three hundred thousand dollars. 
Genet then proceeded to speculate privately on his 
own account. He bought, equipped and commis- 
sioned a prize, called the Little Democrat, and 
prepared to dispatch her on a cruise. The governor 
of Pennsylvania, Mr. Mifflin, requested Genet to 
delay the departure of his vessel. He refused. The 
Little Democrat, on the 11th of July fell down the 
Delaware to Chester, on her outward voyage. The 
cabinet was convened. They resolved to detain all 
vessels of any of the belligerents which had been 
armed in the United States, together with their 
prizes, until the questions thereon arising could be 
definitely settled. But in defiance of this order the 
Little Democrat put to sea, and cruised along the 
American coasts. The government then determined 
to demand the recall of Genet, as French minister, 
as the only expedient whereby the oflended dignity 
of the United States could be satisfied without 
involving both countries in the horrors and calami- 
ties of a war. With unexpected magnanimity the 
French Directory recalled Genet, censured his 
17* 



198 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

conduct, and resolved to send four commissioners 
to the United States, to send Genet home a prisoner, 
and to augment the good feeling and unity which 
existed between the two nations. The sudden over- 
throw of the government at home defeated the exe- 
cution of this purpose. Genet was deprived of his 
diplomatic powers, but remained permanently in the 
United States. Mr. Jefferson describes in the fol- 
lowing sarcastic and scarcely excusable language, 
the deliberations of his associates in the cabinet, iu 
reference to the movements of Genet. We extract 
from a letter to Mr. Madison, dated August 11, 
1793. 

" I believe it will be true wisdom in the republi- 
can party to approve unequivocally of a state of 
neutrality ; to avoid little cavils about who should 
declare it ; to abandon Genet entirely, with ex- 
pressions of strong friendship and adherence to his 
nation, and confidence that he has acted against 
their sense. In this way we shall keep the people 
on our side, by keeping ourselves in the right. They 
made the establishment of the democratic society 
here the ground for sounding the alarm that this 
society, (which they considered as the antifederal 
and discontented faction,) was put into motion by 
M. Genet, and would by their corresponding socie- 
ties, in all the States, draw the mass of the people 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 199 

by dint of misinformation into their vortex, and 
overset the government. The President was 
strongly impressed by this picture, drawn by Hamil- 
ton, in three speeches of three-quarters of an hour's 
length each. I opposed it totally ; told the Presi- 
dent plainly, in their presence, that the intention 
was to dismount him from being the head of the 
nation, and make him the head of a party ; that this 
would be the effect of making him, in an appeal to 
the people, declare war against the republican 
party. Eandolph, according to his half-way system 
between wrong and right, urged the putting off the 
appeal. The President came into his idea, or rather 
concluded that the question on it might be put off 
indefinitely, to be governed by events. If the 
demonstrations of popular adherence to him become 
as general and as warm as I believe they will, I 
think he will never again bring on the question ; if 
there is an appearance of their supporting Genet, 
he will probably make the appeal. Knox is the 
poorest creature I ever saw, having no color of his 
own, and reflecting that nearest to him. When he 
is with me he is a whig, when with Hamilton he is 
a tory, when he is with the President he is what he 

thinks will please him The President always 

acquiesces in the majority ! 

" You ask the sense of France with regard to the 



200 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

defensive quality of tlie guarantee. I know it no 
otherwise than from Genet. His doctrine is, that 
without waiting to be called on — without waiting 
'till the islands were attacked, the moment France 
was engaged in a war, it was our duty to fly to arms 
as a nation, and the duty of every one to do it as an 
individual." 



OF THOMAS JEFFEBSON. 201 



CHAPTER XI. 

MR. Jefferson's retirement from the cabinet of Washington — his 

MOTIVES FOR SO DOING — HIS LETTERS TO MR. MADISON — HIS LAST REPORT 
TO CONGRESS — HIS LETTER OP RESIGNATION — CAUSES OF PREVIOUS DIS- 
SENSIONS IN THE CABINET — MR. JEFFERSON's CHARGES AGAINST MR. 
HAMILTON — EVIDENCE OF THEIR FALSEHOOD — THE NATIONAL GAZETTE — 
FRENEAU — MR. JEFFERSON REFUSES TO SUPPRESS THE NATIONAL GA- 
ZETTE — HIS RETURN TO MONTICELLO — HIS CELEBRATED LETTER TO 

MAzzEi — Jefferson's apology to Washington for its strictures on 

HIM. 

On the 31st of December, 1793, Mr. Jefferson 
executed his long-threatened purpose of retiring 
from the office of Secretary of State. His motives 
for so doing have been frequently discussed, com- 
mended and censured. They seem in reality to 
have been of a complex nature, and quite varied and 
dissimilar in their character. It is doubtless true 
that he was fond of rural and agricultural life ; 
that he desired greater leisure to cultivate his taste 
for literature and science ; that he delighted in tlie 
society of his daughters and grand-children ; and 
that he had already served the public through many 
years of laborious activity. But it seems to be also 
true, that the preponderating cause of his withdrawal 
at this time from the cares ot office was the fact that 



202 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Hamilton had secured the ascendency over "Wash- 
ington and his cabinet ; that Jefferson's popularity 
at this period was on the wane ; and that the pros- 
pects of the administration, of which he was an im- 
portant member, were then gloomy and forbidding. 
At this period party dissensions began to rage with 
greater fury ; and a revolution in popular sentiment 
threatened soon to leave the administration of 
"Washington in a helpless minority. Jeiferson being 
attached to the ultra doctrines of liberty was asso- 
ciated in the cabinet with men whose love of free- 
dom was tempered by a regard for authority, a 
reverence for the past, and esteem for order and 
subordination. Among such men Mr. Jefferson 
was not at home ; and though his great talents and 
reflective sagacity gave him importance and re- 
Bpectability, they could not secure him a predominat- 
ing influence. He seized the most appropriate 
opportunity to escape from the falling wreck with 
safety, security, and honor. Jefferson thought he 
foresaw that the popularity of Washington was 
about to be destroyed by an outburst of popular 
indignation ; and he did not wish to incur any 
portion of that obloquy which the baseness and 
ingratitude of a thankless nation were about to 
inflict, as he feared, upon the author of their liber- 
ties. Jefferson also thous^ht that the tide of demo- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 203 

cratic sentiment was rising rapidly throughout the 
nation ; and the result eventually proved the sagacity 
of his calculations. How far he co-operated, after 
his retirement, in the attainment of this result, it is 
difficult to say ; but it is unquestionable that he 
still cherished a dislike to Washington, a hatred of 
Hamilton, and a detestation of their party, as will 
appear from the following letters to Mr. Madison, 
dated April 3d, and December 28th, 1794 

"Dear Sir : Our post having ceased to ride ever 
since the inoculation began in Richmond till now, I 
received three days ago, and all together, your 
friendly favors of March 2, 9, 12, 14, and Colonel 
Monroe's of March 3 and 16. I have been particu- 
larly gratified by the receipt of the papers containing 
yours and Smith's discussion of your regulating 
propositions. These debates had not been seen here 
but in a very short and mutilated form. I am at no 
loss to ascribe Smith's speech to its true father. 
Every tittle of it is Hamilton's except the introduc- 
tion. There is scarcely any thing there which I 
have not heard from him in our various private, 
though official discussions. The very turn of the 
arguments is the same and others will see as well 
as myself, that the style is Hamilton's. The sophis- 
try is too fine, too ingenious, even to have been com- 



204 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

preheuded bj Smith, much less devised by him. 
His reply shows that he did not understand his first 
speech ; as its general inferiority proves its legiti- 
macy, as evidently as it does the bastardy of the 
original. You knovs^ we had understood that 
Hamilton had prepared a counter report, and that 
some of his humble servants in the Senate were to 
move a reference to him in order to produce it. But 
I suppose they thought it would have a better effect 
if fired off in the House of Representatives. I find 
the report, however, so fully justified, that the anxie- 
ties with which I left it are perfectly quieted. In 
this quarter all espouse your propositions with ardor, 
and without a dissenting voice. 

" The rumor of a declaration of war has given an 
opportunity of seeing that the people here, though 
attentive to the loss of value of their produce in such 
an event, yet find in it a grati^fication of some other 
passions, and particularly of their ancient hatred to 
Great Britain. Still I hope it will not come to that; 
but that the proposition will be carried, and justice 
be done ourselves in a peaceable way. As to the 
guarantee of the French Islands, whatever doubts 
may be entertained of the moment at which we 
ought to iuterpose, yet I have no doubt but that we 
ought to interpose at a proper time, and declare 
both to England and France that these islands are 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 205 

to rest with France, and that we will make a com- 
mon cause with the latter for that object. As to 
the naval armament, the land armament, and the 
marine fortifications, which are in question with you, 
I have no douht they will all be carried. Not that 
the mo7iocrats and papermen in Congress want war ; 
but they want armies and debts ; and though we 
may hope that the sound part of Congress is now so 
augmented as to insure a majority in cases of general 
interest merely, yet I have always observed that in 
questions of expense, where members may hope 
either for offices or jobs for themselves or their 
friends, some few will be debauched, and that is 
sufficient to turn the decision where a majority is at 
most but small. I have never seen a Philadelphia 
paper since I left it, till those you enclosed me ; and 
I feel myself so thoroughly weaned from the inter- 
est I took in the proceedings there while there, that 
I have never had a wish to see one, and believe that 
I never shall take another newspaper of any sort. I 
find my mind totally absorbed in my rural occu- 
pations. 

"Accept sincere assurances of affi3ction, &c." 

" 3Ionticello, Doc. 28, 1794. 
"Dear Sir : I have kept Mr. Jay's letter a post or 
two, with an intention of considering attentively 
18 



206 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

the observations it contains ; but I have really so lit- 
tle stomach for any thing of that kind that I have not 
resolution enough even to endeavor to understand 
the observations. I therefore return the letter, not to 
delay your answer to it, and beg you in answer- 
ing for yourself, to assure him of my respects and 
thankful acceptance of Chalmers' Treatise, which I 
do not possess, and if you possess yourself of the 
scope of his reasoning, make any answer to it you 
please for me. If it had been on the rotation of my 
crops, I would have answered myself, lengthily per- 
haps, but certainly con gusto. 

" The denunciation of the democratic societies is 
one of the extraordinary acts of boldness of which 
we have seen so many from the faction of monocrats. 
It is wonderful indeed, that the President should 
have permitted himself to be the organ of such an 
attack on the freedom of discussion, the freedom of 
writing, printing and publishing. It must be a 
matter of rare curiosity to get at the modifications 
of these rights proposed by them, and to see what 
line their ingenuity would draw between democrati- 
cal societies, whose avowed object is the nourish- 
ment of the republican principles of our Constitution 
and the Society of the Cincinnatti, a self-created 
one, carving out for itself hereditary distinctions, 
lowering over our Constitution eternally, meeting 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOISr. 207 

together in all parts of the Union periodically, with 
closed doors, accumulating a capital in their sepa- 
rate treasury, corresponding secretly and regularly, 
and of which society the very persons denouncing 
the democrats are themselves the fathers, founders, 
and high officers. Their sight must be perfectly 
dazzled by the glittering of crowns and coronets, 
not to see the extravagance of the proposition to 
suppress the friends of general freedom ; while those 
who wish to confine that freedom to the few, are 
permitted to go on in their principles and practices. 
I here put out of sight the persons whose misbeha- 
vior has been taken advantage of to slander the 
friends of popular rights ; and I am happy to ob- 
serve that, as far as the circle of my observation and 
information extends, every body has lost sight of 
them, and views the abstract attempt on their natural 
and constitutional rights in all its nakedness. I have 
never heard of a single expression or opinion which 
did not condemn it as an inexcusable aggression. 
And with respect to the transactions against the excise 
law, it appears to me that you are all swept away in 
the torrent of governmental opinions, or that we do 
not know what these transactions have been. We 
know of none which, according to the definitions of 
the law, have been any thing more than riotous. 
There was indeed a meeting to consult about a 



208 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

separation. But to consult on a question does not 
amount to a detennination of that question in the 
atiinnative, still less to the acting on sueh a deter- 
mination ; but we shall see, I suppose, what tlie 
court lawyers and courtly judges, and would-be am- 
bassadors will make of it. The excise law is an 
infernal one. The first error Avas to admit it by 
the Constitution ; the second to act on that admis- 
sion ; the third and last will be to make it the in- 
strument of dismembering the Union and setting us 
all afloat to choose what part of it we will adhere to. 
The information of our militia, returned from the 
westward, is uniform, that though the people there 
let them pass quietly, they were objects of their 
laughter, not of their fear ; that one thousand men 
could have cut ofi" their whole force in a thousand 
places of the Alleghany ; that their detestation of 
the excise law is universal, and has now associated 
to it a detestation of the government ; and that sepa- 
ration which perhaps was a very distant and proble- 
matical event is now near and certain, and determined 
in the mind of every man. I expected to have seen 
some justification of arming one part of the society 
against another ; of declaring a civil war the mo- 
ment before the meeting of that body which has the 
sole right of declaring war ; of being so patient of 
the kicks and scofls of our enemies, and rising at a 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 209 

feather against our friends ; of adding a million to 
the public debt, and deriding us with recommenda- 
tions to pay it if we can, &c., &c. But the part of 
the speech which was to be taken as a justification 
of the armament, reminded me of parson Saunders' 
demonstration why minus into minus makes plus. 
After a parcel of shreds of stuff from .^Esop's Fables 
and Tom Thumb, he jumps all at once into his ergo, 
minus multiplied into minus makes plus. Just so 
the fifteen thousand men enter after the fables in 
the speech. 

" However, the time is coming when we shall 
fetch up the leeway of our vessel. The changes in 
your house I see are going on for the better, and 
even the Augean herd over your heads are slowly 
purging off their impurities. Hold on then, my dear 
friend, that we may not shipwreck in the meanwhile. 
I do not see in the minds of those with whom I 
converse, a greater affliction than the fear of your 
retirement ; but this must not be, unless to a more 
splendid and more efficacious post. There I should 
rejoice to see you ; I hope I may say I shall rejoice 
to see you. I have long had much in my mind to 
say to you on that subject ; but double delicacies have 
kept me silent. I ought perhaps to say, while I 
would not give up my own retirement for the 
empire of the universe, how I can justify wishing 
18* 



210 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

one whose happiness I have so much at heart as 
yours, to take the front of the battle which is fight- 
ing for my security. This would be easy enough to 
be done, but not at the heel of a lengthy epistle. 
Adieu." 

The immediate occasion of the resignation of Mr. 
Jefferson was the fate which befel his last official 
report to Congress on the commerce and naviga- 
tion of the United States in their relations to 
foreign governments, with suggestions upon the 
measures which it would be expedient to adopt to 
improve and extend the same. This report asserts 
the doctrine of Free Trade, and yet entertains the 
contingencies of a Protective Tariff. 

He begins by considering the value of the articles 
of our export to the different countries with whom 
we exchange commodities ; and then proceeds to 
investigate the restrictions which other nations have 
imposed upon our trade ; whence he branches out 
into an appeal to Congress, to devise and adopt the 
most eligible modes for their modifi.cation, counter- 
action, or removal. He then suggests as two of the 
most eligible methods : first, Negotiations for com- 
mercial treaties on the basis of reciprocity ; and 
second, Legislative enactments imposing counter- 
acting restrictions upon the trade of those nations 
which will not treat on the first-named condition. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 211 

Commercial regulations he deemed preferable, be- 
cause he contended that an unshackled and free 
trade was the most profitable, reasonable and just; 
and that the United States ought to hold in special 
favor any nation which would, by commencing the 
system, set a good example for others to follow ; and 
in the same spirit to resist with rigorous counteract- 
ing duties, the commerce and navigation of those 
countries that pertinaciously adhered to the system 
of prohibitions, high duties, or vexatious exactions. 
An obvious train of powerful argument is adduced 
to sustain this just position, and recommend to 
national patronage the navigation interest of the 
country ; urging with a fervor commensurate to the 
great importance of the question, the adoption of the 
system of national reciprocity — opposing tariff to 
tariff — duty against duty ; but at all times giving a 
decided preference to free and unrestrained trade, 
universally guaranteed from all shackles by com- 
mercial treaties and arrangements. 

In support of this report Mr. Madison introduced 
a series of resolutions in the House, which called 
forth a long and animated debate. The hostility of 
the majority of the Representatives against the 
report was so intense and so evident, that the reso- 
lutions were never put to the vote ; and thus the 
matter ended in a virtual defeat of the Secretary of 



212 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

State. This report was made on the 16th of Decem- 
ber ; and immediately after the termination of the 
debate, on the 31st of the same month, Mr. Jefierson 
sent in his resignation. His intention was expressed 
to Washington in the following language : 

" Philadelphia, December 31, 1793. 
" Sir : Having had the honor of communicating 
to you, in my letter of the last of July, my purpose 
of retiring from the office of Secretary of State, at 
the end of the month of September, you were 
pleased, for particular reasons, to wish its postpone- 
ment to the close of the year. That term being now 
arrived, and my propensity to retirement becoming 
daily more and more irresistible, I now take the 
liberty of resigning the office into your hands. Be 
pleased to accept my sincere thanks for all the in- 
dulgences which you have been so good as to exer- 
cise toward me in the discharge of its duties. 
Conscious that my need of them has been great, I 
have still ever found them greater, without any 
other claim on my part than a firm support of what 
has appeared to be right and a thorough disdain of 
all means which were not as open and honorable as 
their object was pure. I carry into my retirement 
a lively sense of your goodness, and shall continue 
gratefully to remember it. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 213 

* With my serious prayers for your life, health, 
and tranquillity, I pray 3'ou accept the homage of 
the great and constant respect and attachment with 
which I have the honor to be, &c." 

But it is doubtless true that the many and bitter 
dissensions which had occurred in the Cabinet be- 
tween Jeflerson and Hamilton, had at length ren- 
dered it impossible for them to act together to any 
extent. In vain had Washington endeavored to 
harmonize their disputes. How earnestly he 
desired this result may be inferred from the follow- 
ing extract from the letter which he addressed to 
each member of his Cabinet : 

" My earnest wish and my fondest hope, therefore, 
is, that instead of wounding suspicions and irritat- 
ing charges, there may be liberal allowances, mutual 
forbearances, and temporising yielding on all sides. 
Under the exercise of these, matters will go on 
smoothly, and, if possible, more prosperously. With- 
out them every thing must rub, the wheels of gov- 
ernment will clog, our enemies will triumph, and 
by throwing their weight into the disaffected scale, 
may accomplish the ruin of the goodly fabric we 
have been erecting, 

" I do not mean to apply this advice, or these ob- 



214 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

servations, to any particular person or character. I 
have given them in the same general terms to other 
officers of the government, because the disagreements 
which have arisen from difference of opinions, and 
the attacks which have been made upon almost all 
the measures of government, and most of its execu- 
tive officers, have for a long time past filled me with 
painful sensations, and cannot fail, I think, of 
producing unhappy consequences at home and 
abroad." 

That Mr. Jefferson was to blame for a large share 
of the difficulties and disputes which embarrassed 
the Cabinet, is unquestionable. His personal hatred 
of Mr. Hamilton inflamed his feelings and beclouded 
his judgment. In this state of mind he often op- 
posed good measures, simply because they were de- 
fended and approved by his rival. He also aggra- 
vated the existing evils by making charges against 
Hamilton which were dictated by personal spite ; 
which were unfounded in truth ; and which com- 
pelled his foe to retort, and to defend himself with 
acrimony. As an instance of this, we may cite the 
accusation made by Mr. Jefferson, that Mr. Hamil- 
ton had corrupted members of the legislature and 
had rewarded his friends by dealing out the finan- 
cial secrets of the Treasury. This charge had been 
first made by Mr. Jefferson in a letter to "Washing- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 215 

ton, dated May 23d, 1792.* A eomplaint of such 
severit}' and importance as this, should have been 
sustained by something like proof; and if it had 
been true, the evidence in support of it would have 
been accessible. If Jefferson had possessed no 
proof, he should not have made the charge; and 
the fact that he adduced no evidence and cited no 
particulars, evinces clearly that he could not do so. 
Had he possessed the ability he certainly would not 
have wanted the inclination. 

But, unfortunately for the sincerity and veracity 
of Mr. Jefferson, while there is a total absence of 
proof in support of his assertion, there is direct evi- 
dence in existence of its falsity. 

Among the most intimate and esteemed friends 
of Mr. Hamilton was Colonel Lee, well known for 
his many brilliant exploits during the Revolution. 
He had been closely associated with Mr. Hamilton 
at the head-quarters of the army, during the period 
when the latter was Washington's private secretary. 
He was a person whom Hamilton would have gladly 

* See Writings of G. Washington, by Sparks : Vol. x. Appendix, p. 
504. Jefferson repeats the charge in another letter to Washington, 
dated Sept. 9, 1792. See Writings of Washington : Vol. x. Appendix, 
p. 617. The letter of May 23d, 1792, with a very slight change of 
form, was the letter Washington addressed to Hamilton, July 2yth, 
1702. See Washington's Writings : Vol. X. p. 249. Compare Hamil- 
ton's answer to the queries contained in that letter,— Hamilton's 
Works: Vol. iv. pp.247, 2i8. 



216 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

served on any possible occasion, by any means in 
his power. Immediately before Hamilton made his 
report to Congress in reference to the public credit, 
in December, 1789, Colonel Lee addressed certain 
queries to Mr. Hamilton in reference to the policy 
and measures which he intended to recommend, for 
the purpose of using the information thus obtained 
in private financial operations. Here was an 
instance in which Mr. Hamilton could have obliged 
one of his best friends, and could have also used the 
secrets of the Treasury in strengthening his support- 
ers in Congress, had he desired to do so. His 
answer to Col. Lee, dated December 1st, 1789, im- 
mediately before his report was made to Congress, 
is as follows : 

" My Dear Friend : I received your letter of the 
16th inst. I am sure you are sincere when you say 
that you would not subject me to an impropriety ; 
nor do I know there would be any in answering your 
queries. But you remember the saying with regard 
to Caesar's wife. I think the spirit of it applicable 
to every man concerned in the administration of the 
finances of a country ; with respect to the conduct 
of such men, suspicion is ever eagle-eyed, and the 
most innocent things may be misrepresented. Be 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 217 

assured of the affectionate friendship of yours, 
&c."* 



Now although the evidence which proves that Mr. 
Hamilton refused to reveal treasury secrets to Col, 
Lee, does not absolutely show that he did not reveal 
them to others, it proves, in the absence of all testi- 
mony to the contrary, that the same spirit would 
actuate him consistently in all his official transac- 
tions ; and the inference is legitimate and just, that 
he never did thus violate the dictates of honor and 
duty. If this be true, then the conclusion is una- 
voidable, that Mr. Jefferson made false charges 
against his rival ; charges which he had no reason 
whatever to believe to be true ; and consquently 
that those dissensions in the Cabinet, which resulted 
in part from the propagation of these slanders, were 
to some extent attributable to the conduct of Mr. 
Jefferson. This censure becomes more just when 
it is remembered that this ungrounded and unproven 
accusation is frequently repeated by him against 
Hamilton, both in his letters and in his Ana. That 
his longer connection with the Cabinet of Washing- 
ton was impossible under such circumstances, and 
in the midst of such jealousies and recriminations, 
is not singular 

• See Works of Hamilton, by his Son : Vol. v., p. 446. 
19 



213 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Even the hostile feelings which had gradually 
grown up between Mr. Jefferson and the President 
were such as to render their further connection un- 
pleasant. The National Cfazette had been established 
by Mr. Jefferson ; and its leading articles continu- 
ally and bitterly attacked Washington, Hamilton, 
and their measures. In many of these articles the 
style of Jefferson was clearly detected ; and their 
abuse of the President was most execrable. A 
literary adventurer named Freneau was used by 
him as his chief tool in the conduct of this paper. 
Mr. Jefferson was full}'- aware of the chagrin inflicted 
by the attacks of that man upon "Washington. In 
his Ana he thus speaks of the complaints made by 
Washington to him in person, in a private inter- 
view : 

" He adverted to a piece in Freneau's paper of 
yesterday ; he said he despised all their attacks on 
him personally, but that there niever had been an act 
of the government, not meaning in the executive 
line only, but in any line, which that paper had not 
abused. He had also marked the word republic 
tlius (V) where it was applied to the French repub- 
lic. He was evidently sore and warm, and I took 
his intention to be that I should interpose in some 
way with Freneau, perhaps withdraw his appoint- 
ment of translating clerk to my office. But I will 





OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 219 

not do it. Hu paper has saved our Constitution^ 
which was galloping fast into monarchy, and has 
been checked by no one means so powerfully as that 
'paper. It is well and universally known, that it has 
been that paper which has checked the career of the 
monocrats ; and the President, not sensible of the 
designs of the party, has not, with his usual good 
sense and sang froid, looked on the efforts and 
eflects of this free press, and seen that though some 
bad things have passed through it to the public, yet 
the good have preponderated immensely." 

After Mr. Jefferson's return to Monticello, it is 
certain that his residence became for several years 
the head-quarters of those who were opposed to the 
administration of Washington, and that all the 
democratic measures which were proposed in Con- 
gres were undertaken after his advice and approval 
had been obtained. He had a share in directing the 
attacks of the opposition journals, and he made with 
his own hand draughts of the bills, resolutions and 
reports which were offered to Congress by his con- 
federates. His most intimate friends and associates 
at this period were Messrs. Madison, Monroe and 
Giles. It was at this period of his retirement that 
he wrote his famous letter to Mr. Mazzei, his Italian 
friend, in which he is charged with having traduced 
"Washington. This letter Avas not intended for 



220 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

the public eye; but unfortunately it was translated 
into Italian in Florence, thence into French, and 
afterward published in the Moniteur. It was subse- 
quently retranslated' into English, and published 
both in England and tbe United States. The por- 
tion of this letter which refers to politics is as fol- 
lows : 

" The aspect of our politics has wonderfully 
changed since you left us April 24, 1796. In place 
of that noble love of liberty and republican govern- 
ment which carried us triumphantly through the 
war, an Anglican monarchical and aristocratical 
party has sprung up, whose avowed object is to draw 
over us the substance, as they have already done 
the forms, of the British government. The main 
body of our citizens, however, remain true to their 
republican principles ; the whole landed interest is 
republican, and so is a great mass of talents. 
Against us are the executive, the judiciary, two out 
of three branches of the legislature, all the officers 
of the government, all who want to be officers, all 
timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the 
boisterous sea of liberty ; British merchants and 
Americans trading on British capitals, speculators 
and holders in the banks and public funds, a con- 
trivance invented for the purposes of corruption,' 
and for assimilating us in all things to the rotten aa 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 221 

well as the sound parts of the British model. It 
would give you a fever were I to name to you the 
apostates who have gone over to these heresies, men 
who were Samsons in the field and Solomons in the 
council, hut who have had their heads shorn by the 
harlot Erjgland. In short, we are likely to preserve 
the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting 
labors and perils. But we shall preserve it ; and our 
mass of weight and wealth on the good side is so 
great, as to leave no danger that force will ever be 
attempted against us. We have only to awake and 
snap the liliputian cords with which they have been 
entangling us during the first sleep which succeeded 
our labors. I begin to feel the effects of age. My 
health has suddenly broken down, with symptoms 
which give me to believe I shall not have much to 
encounter of the tedium vitce. While it remains, 
however, my heart will be warm in its friendships, 
and among these, will always foster the affections, 
with which I am, dear sir, your friend and servant, 
&c." 

This letter has long been the theme of dispute 
between the friends and enemies of Mr. Jefferson. 
The former deny that Washington was referred to 
in it by the author, in any way. The latter assert 
the contrary. Timothy Pickering states, on tlie 
authority of Dr. Stuart, that Washington, after the 
19* 



222 Til 10 LWK ANU TIMKS 

tiMiuiiKilion of li'iH socoiul and last udministration, 
oallod its author personally to account for the injury 
tlma done him ; and that Mr. Jertcrson appeased the 
just resentment of Washing-ton by some great act 
of apology and humiliation, the precise nature and 
degree of which never became known. The full and 
accurate truth in reference to this aliidr cannot now 
be recovered ; ibr the lapse of time, and the careful 
removal of many sources of information, have effec- 
tually covered it forever with the mantle of oblivion. 
Mr. Jefferson appears in a more pleasing and 
amiable light when viewed upon his estate, engaged 
in the harmless and agreeable occupation of agricul- 
ture. The celebrated French traveler, the Duke do 
Liancourt, thus describes the sage and politician of 
Monticello at this period : "His conversation is of the 
most agreeable kind, and lie possesses a stock of in- 
formation not inferior to that of any other man. In 
Europe he would hold a distinguished rank among 
men of letters, and as such he has already appeared 
there. At present he is employed with activity and 
perseverance in the management of his farms and 
buildings, and he orders, directs and pursues, in the 
minutest detail, every branch of business relating to 
them. The author of this sketch found him in the 
midst of harvest, from which the scorching heat of 
the sun does not prevent his attendance. His 



ae bis wtitfe serT^act^ ^^p^^'A l*^. A= he caimot 
expect any a©-. two email neigt;bor- 

ing towns, ererj anieie i» laade on L Ms 

negroes are caLmet-makerE, 

bricklajers, fee. The cLilc'r' . ... ^ . „.. 

manufactorj, wldeh yield-. a cousideraJble 

profit. The yonng and old negresses spin for the 
clothing of the rest He anirtiates them by rewards 
and distinctions ; in fine, Ms snp>erior mind directs 
the management of his domestic concerns ^iiih the 
same abilities, actiritr and regnlaritr, wMeh he 
evinced in the conduct of public affairs, and wMch 
he is calculated to display in every situation in life/' 



224: THE LIFE AND TIMES 



CHAPTER XII. 



mr. jefferson elected vice-president — his relations to the presi- 
dent — the new cabinet — disputes with the french government — 
american envoys sent to paris — their reception there — mb. 
Jefferson's political creed — indignation in the united states 
against france — napoleon bonaparte succeeds to the french 
directory, and makes a treaty with the united states — termina- 
tion of mr. adams' administration — the approaching election — dr. 
Logan's private mission to france. 



Mr. Jefferson's retirement from public office 
continued during the space of tliree years. In Oc- 
tober, 1796, John Adams was elected President, 
and Mr. Jefierson Vice-President of the United 
States. The former received seventy-one votes, the 
latter sixty-eight. In spite of his prodigious devo- 
tion to the cultivation of Lucerne and potatoes, Mr. 
Jefierson at once accepted the profifered dignity. In 
February, 1797, he prepared to leave Monticello for 
Philadelphia, where the Federal Government was 
then located. Previous to this period he had not 
been on very friendly terms with the President 
elect; but on December 28th, he addressed him a 
conciliatory letter, and immediately on his arrival 
at Philadelphia paid his respects to Mr. Adams in 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 225 

person. The next day Mr. Adams returned the 
visit. Their former friendly feelings were again 
revived, a circumstance which augured favorably for 
the harmony of the ensuing administration. The 
Cabinet of Mr. Adams consisted of Timothy Picker- 
ing as Secretary of State, Mr. Wolcott as Secretary 
of the Treasury, Mr. McHenry as Secretary of War, 
and Mr. Lee as Attorney-General. The relative 
strength of parties in the legislature stood fifty-two 
in favor of the administration and forty-eight against 
it. The President and Cabinet were Federal, the 
Vice-President alone was Democratic. This an- 
tagonism was not of much consequence, inasmuch 
as Mr. Jefferson's duties consisted merely in pre- 
siding over the deliberations of the Senate. He was 
not admitted to the consultations of the Cabinet. 
In his letters to James Sullivan, Eldredge Gerry, 
Mr. Madison, Colonel Burr and General Gates, of 
the year 1797, he expresses his great disappointment 
that such an invitation had not been extended to him. 
The letter addressed by Mr. Jefferson to the new 
President, already referred to, is as follows : 

" Monticello, Dec. 28, 1796. 
"Dear Sir: The public and the public papers, 
have been much occupied lately in placing us in a 
point of opposition to each other. I confidently 



226 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

trust we have felt less of it ourselves. In the retired 
canton where I live, we know little of what is pass- 
ing. Our last information from Philadelphia is of 
the 16th inst. At that date the issue of the late 
election seems not to have been known as a matter 
of fact. With me, however, its issue was never 
doubted. I knew the impossibility of your losing a 
single vote north of the Delaware ; and even if you 
should lose that of Pennsylvania in the mass, you 
would get enough south of it to make your election 
sure. I never, for a single moment, expected any 
other issue, and though I shall not be believed, yet 
it is not the less true, that I never wished any other. 
My neighbors, as my compurgators, could aver this 
fact, as seeing my occupations and my attachment 
to them. It is possible, indeed, that even you may 
be cheated of your succession by a trick worthy the 
subtlety of your arch friend of New York, who has 
been able to make of your real friends tools for de- 
feating their and your just wishes. Probably, how- 
ever, he will be disappointed as to you ; and my 
inclinations put me out of his reach. I leave to 
others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, 
better pleased with a sound sleep and a warmer 
birth below it, encircled with the society of my 
neighbors, friends, and fellow-laborers of the earth, 
rather than with spies and sycophants. Still, I shall 



OF THOMAS JEFFKRSON. 227 

value highly the share I may have had in the late 
vote, as a measure of the share I hold in the esteem 
of my fellow-citizens. In this point of view, a few 
votes less are but little sensible, while a few more 
would have been in their effect very sensible and 
oppressive to me. I have no ambition to govern 
men. It is a painful and thankless office. And 
never since the day you signed the treaty of Paris, 
has our horizon been so overcast. I devoutly wish 
you may be able to shun for us this war, which will 
destroy our agriculture, commerce and credit. If 
you do, the glory will be all your own. And that 
your administration may be filled with glory and 
happiness to yourself, and advantage to us, is the 
sincere prayer of one, who, though in the course of 
our voyage, various little incidents have happened 
or been contrived, to separate us, yet retains for you 
the solid esteem of the times when we were work- 
ing for our independence, and sentiments of sincere 
respect and attachment." 

No one can carefully peruse this singular document 
without perceiving that its author therein utters 
sentiments unworthy of his talents and his patriot- 
ism. He is not consistent or true to his own party 
and professions; for how could he say that he 
^'' 7iever wished for any other m-wt;" than the election 



228 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

of Mr. Adams, whom lie knew to be an ultra-fed- 
eralist, and yet claim the least pretense to consist- 
ency ? The truth is, Mr. Jefferson was extremely 
desirous of conciliating the President elect, in order 
that he might be invited to share the deliberations 
of the Cabinet; and to attain that end, he was willing 
to make concessions which true moral courage 
would have condemned and disdained. 

Congress had been convened under the new ad- 
ministration for the 15th of May. The chief questions 
which agitated the country during the ensuing 
session were the spoliations of France on American 
commerce, the insulting treatment of the American 
envoys at Paris, and the anticipations of a furious 
conflict with that nation. Mr. Jefferson was op- 
posed to a war with the French government and 
people. Indeed it must be said in justice to him, 
that though he hated England with an unappeasable 
hatred, yet he was opposed to any rupture even with 
that country. Mr. Pinkney, the minister sent by 
Mr. Adams to Paris as successor to Mr. Monroe, 
was refused an audience by the Directory, then act- 
ing under the influence of the artful and rapacious 
Talleyrand. Mr. Adams' Cabinet was divided upon 
the policy which it became the United States to 
adopt under these circumstances. A portion of 
them, including Mr. Pickering, thought that national 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 229 

self-respect forbade the appointment of any other 
emissary to France until an apology had been 
made. Another portion thought that, rather than 
venture on the hazards which would ensue upon a 
final rupture with that country, the President should 
once more try the efiect of proffered negotiation. 
With these advisers Mr. Adams acquiesced ; and 
three envoys were sent to France. These were 
General Pinckney, of South Carolina ; Mr. Marshall, 
of Virginia; and Mr. Gerry, of Massachusetts. Their 
appointment was confirmed by the Senate. They 
entered on their mission, and the nation awaited 
the result with intense interest. 

During this interval of suspense Mr. Jefferson 
was not idle. Though a member of, he was heartily 
opposed to, the existing administration. He en- 
deavored to break it down both by his personal acts 
and his correspondence ; and as the great name of 
"Washington was still the chief support of the party 
in power, he did not scruple to assail even him. On 
the 17th of June he addressed a letter to Aaron 
Burr, in which the following language occurs : 

"I had always hoped that the popularity of the 
late President being once withdrawn from active 
efiect, the natural feelings of the people toward lib- 
erty would restore the equilibrium between the 
executive and legislative departments, which had 
20 



230 THE IIFE AND TIMES 

been destroyed by the superior weight and effect of 
that popularity ; and that their natural feelings of 
moral obligation would discountenance the ungrate- 
ful predilection of the executive in favor of Great 
Britain. But unfortunately, the preceding measures 
had already alienated the nation, who were the ob- 
ject of them, had excited reaction from them, and 
this reaction has, on the minds of our citizens, an 
effect which supplies that of the Washington popu- 
larity. 

"But will that region ever awake to the true 
state of things ? Can the Middle, Southern, and 
Western States hold on till they awake ? These are 
painful and doubtful questions ; and if, in assuring 
me of your health, you can give me a comfortable 
solution of them, it will relieve a mind devoted to 
the preservation of our republican government in 
the true form and spirit in which it was established, 
but almost oppressed with apprehensions that fraud 
will at length effect what force could not, and that 
what with currents and counter-currents, we shall, 
in the end, be driven back to the land from which 
we launched twenty years ago." 

In the same spirit of censure and apprehension 
he wrote to Governor Rutledge, on the 24th of 
June, as follows : 

" This is, indeed, a most humiliating state of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 231 

things; but it commenced in 1793. Causes have 
been adding to causes, and eftects accumulating 
on effects, from that time to this. We had in 1793 
the most respectable character in the universe. 
What the neutral nations think of us now, I know 
not; but we are low indeed with the belligerents. 
Their kicks and cuffs prove their contempt. If we 
weather the present storm, I hope we shall avail 
ourselves of the calm of peace to place our foreign 
connections under a new and different arrangement. 
We must make the interest of every nation stand 
surety for their justice; and their own loss to follow 
injury to us, as effect follows its cause. As to every 
thing except commerce, we ought to divorce our- 
selves from them all. But this system would 
require time, temper, wisdom, and occasional sacri- 
fice of interest ; and how far all these will be ours, 
our children may see, but we shall not. The passions 
are too high at present to be cooled in our day. 
You and I have formerly seen warm debates and 
high political passions. But gentlemen of different 
politics would then speak to each other, and separate 
the business of the Senate from that of society. It is 
not so now. Men who have been intimate all their 
lives cross the street to avoid meeting, and turn tlieir 
heads another way, lest they should be obliged to 
touch their hats. This may do for young men, with 



232 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

whom passion is enjoyment. But it is afflicting to 
peaceable minds. Tranquillity is the old man's 
milk. I go to enjoy it in a few days, and to ex- 
change the roar and tumult of bulls and bears for 
the prattle of my grandchildren, and senile rest. Be 
these yours, my dear friend, through long years, 
•with every other blessing, and the attachment of 
friends as warm." 

In the beginning of this year, 1797, Mr. Jefferson 
was elected President of the American Philosophi- 
cal Society, of which body, for twenty years, he had 
been a member. He was highly gratified by this 
distinction ; for during his whole life, in the midst 
of political conflicts, and all the rude scenes of pub- 
lic life and ambition, he greatly appreciated the value 
of scientific pursuits, and of those institutions which 
promoted their success. 

It was at the same period that Mr. Jefferson 
addressed a letter to Mr. Gerry, in which he care- 
fully embodied his political creed. As this docu- 
ment contains the fullest exposition of his political 
views which is to be found among his writings, it 
possesses a much more than transient importance. 
We therefore insert it here, as being an instrument 
of authority on the subject of which it treats. 

" In confutation of these, and all future calumnies," 
says Mr. J., "b}' way of anticipation, I shall make to 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 233 

you a profession of my political faith ; in confidence 
that you will consider every future imputation on 
me of a contrary complexion, as bearing on its front 
the mark of falsehood and calumny. 

" I do then, with a smcere zeal, wish an inviolable 
preservation of our present Federal Constitution, 
according to the true sense in which it was adopted 
by the States, that in which it was advocated 
by its friends, and not that which its enemies appre- 
hended, who therefore became its enemies ; and I 
am opposed to monarchising its features by the 
forms of its administration, with a view to conciliate 
a first transition to a President and Senate for life, 
and from that to an hereditary tenure of these 
offices, and thus to worm out the elective principle. 
I am for preserving to the States the powers not 
yielded by them to the Union, and to the Legisla- 
ture of the Union its constitutional share in the 
division of powers ; and I am not for transferring 
all the powers of the States to the general govern- 
ment, and all those of that government to the 
Executive branch. I am for a government rigor- 
ously frugal and simple, applying all the possible 
savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the 
national debt; and not for a multiplication of oifi- 
cers and salaries, merely to make partisans, and for 
increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the 
20* 



234 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

principle of its being a public blessing. I am for 
relying for internal defense on our militia solely, 
till actual invasion, and for such a naval force only 
as may protect our coasts and harbors from such 
depredations as we have experienced ; and not for 
a standing army in time of peace, which may over- 
awe the public sentiment ; nor for a navy, which by 
its own expenses and the eternal wars in which it 
will implicate us, will grind us with public burdens, 
and sink us under them. I am for free commerce 
with all nations ; political connection with none ; 
and little or no diplomatic establishment. And I 
am not for linking ourselves by new treaties with 
the quarrels of Europe ; ent^'ing that field of 
slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in 
the confederacy of kings to war against the princi- 
ples of liberty. I am for freedom of religion, and 
against all maneuvres to bring about the legal 
ascendancy of one sect over another; for freedom 
of the press, and against all violations of the Con- 
stitution to silence by force, and not bj reason, the 
complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citi- 
zens, against the conduct of their agents. And I 
am for encouraging the progress of science in all its 
branches ; and not for raising a hue and cry against 
the sacred name of philosophy, for awing the human 
mind by stories of raw-head and bloody bones, to a 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 235 

distrust of its own vision ; and to repose implicitly 
on that of others ; to go backward instead of for- 
ward to look for improvement ; to believe that 
government, religion, morality, and every other 
science were in the highest perfection in ages 
of the darkest ignorance, and that nothing can ever 
be devised more perfect than what was established 
by our forefathers. To these, I will add, that I was 
a sincere well-wisher to the success of the French 
revolution, and still wish it may end in the establish- 
ment of a free and well-ordered republic, but I have 
not been insensible under the atrocious depredations 
they have committed on our commerce. The first 
object of my heart is my own country. In that is 
embarked my family, my fortune and my own exist- 
ence. I have not one farthing of interest, nor one 
fibre of attachment out of it, nor a single motive of 
preference of any one nation to another, but in pro- 
portion as they are more or less friendly to us. But, 
though deeply feeling the injuries of France, I did 
not think war the surest means of redressing them. 
I did believe that a mission, sincerely disposed 
to preserve peace, would obtain for us a peaceable 
and honorable settlement and retribution ; and I 
appeal to you to say, whether this might not have 
been obtained, if either of your colleagues had been 
of the same sentiment Avith yourself." 



236 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

The new American envoys to Paris were received 
bj the Directory with studied coldness and con- 
tempt. On the 19th of March, 1798, the President 
informed Congress that the dispatches received 
from their envoys afforded no ground to hope that 
their mission would be successful. He recom- 
mended that the country be put in a state of defense 
by providing military stores and an efficient reve- 
nue. He had also withdrawn the instructions which 
had been given to the custom-house officers to 
restrain armed vessels from leaving our ports, except 
in certain particular cases. On the 8th of April 
the Senate resolved to publish the dispatches of the 
American envoys ; and these revealed, among other 
things, a disgraceful attempt on the part of Talley- 
rand to sell the friendly dispositions of the Directory 
and of himself to the United States on the payment 
of a large sum of money. 

General indignation now pervaded the whole 
country against the French people and government. 
A provisional army was at once authorized of twenty 
thousand men. A tax on stamps and a direct tax 
on lands were immediately imposed, for the purpose 
of supporting the expenses of an anticipated war. The 
foundations of the American navy were then laid ; 
vigorous measures seemed to characterize the 
administration, and resolute purposes to inflame 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 237 

the people. Mr. Jefferson gives the following pic- 
ture, in a letter to Mr. Madison, of the state of the 
public mind at this crisis : 

" The popular movement in the Eastern States is 
checked, as we expected, and war addresses are 
showering in from New Jersej' and the great trading 
towns. However, we will trust that a nearer view 
of war and a laud tax will oblige the great mass of 
the people to attend ; at present the war-hawks talk 
of septembrizing, deportation, and the examples of 
quelling sedition set by the French executive. All 
the firmness of the human mind is now in a state 
of requisition." And on May the 3d: "The spirit 
kindled up in the towns is wonderful. These and 
New Jersey are pouring in their addresses, offering 
life and fortune ;" and he says that the President's 
answers are "more thrasonic than the addresses." 
He regards all hope of peace as then destroyed, 
and supposes that the President's threats are not 
confined to France, but are extended to his fellow- 
citizens. He states that the French citizens, taking 
alarm at his alien bill, were going off, and among 
them, Voluey, whom be believes to have been the 
pirincipal object of the bill. 

To another correspondent, a young lawyer in 
Fredericksburg, who had informed him of Mr. 
Luther Martin's attack on him, he writes a few days 



238 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

afterward : " At this moment all tlie passions are 
boiling over, and one who keeps himself cool and 
clear of the contagion, is so far below the point of 
ordinary conversation, that he finds himself insulated 
in every society. However, the fever will not last ; 
war, land tax and stamp tax are sedatives which 
must cool its ardor." — " It is our duty still to en- 
deavor to avoid war ; but if it actually shall take 
place, no matter by whom brought on, we must 
defend ourselves." 

In June Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall returned 
home from France ; Mr. Gerry yet remained. The 
two former were received with great demonstrations 
of popular respect. The future relations of the 
country toward France continued to engage the 
public mind, and to occupy the deliberations of 
the Cabinet until the succeeding 25th of February, 
when Mr. Adams nominated Messrs. Ellsworth, of 
Connecticut, Henry, of Virginia, and Murray, of 
Maryland, as ministers to France. Mr. Henry de- 
clined the appointment. The negotiations of the 
new envoys were more successful than those of their 
predecessors. They had also a different power to 
deal with than the imbecile and vacillating Direc- 
tory. The strong arm of Napoleon had seized the 
reins of government, and his towering genius then 
directed her destinies. A treaty on liberal and 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 239 

equitable principles was soon adjusted between him 
and the American representatives, and the evils of 
an apprehended war w^ere averted from both coun- 
tries. 

Immediately after these events a new subject of 
interest absorbed the popular attention. This was 
the general election, which was about to take place. 
The errors which Mr. Adams had committed, his 
own personal unpopularity, and the growing strength 
of the democratic party, were silently but effectually 
working the overthrow of the faction in power. The 
death of Washington, which occurred at this period, 
had sliorn the Federal party of a great portion of its 
strength and popularity. Every thing presaged the 
coming supremacy of the Republicans. 

Mr. Jefferson thus speaks to Mr. Madison of the 
approaching presidential election. " As the con- 
veyance is confidential, I can say something on a 
subject which, to those who do not know jny real 
dispositions respecting it, might seem indelicate. 
The Federalists begin to be very seriously alarmed 
about their election next fall. Their speeches in 
private, as well as their public and private demeanor 
to me, indicate it strongly." He then details the 
probable votes of most of the States, and thus con- 
cludes : " Still these are the ideas of the Repub- 
licans only in these three States, and we rnustnuike 



2 10 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

i>;rGat allowance for their sanguine views. Upon the 
whole, I consider it as rather more doubtful than 
the last election, in which I was not deceived in 
more than a vote or two." 

On the 12th of May he writes to the same corre- 
spondent : " The Federalists have not been able to 
carry a single strong measure in the lower House 
the whole session. When they met it was believed 
they had a majority of twenty ; but many of these 
were new and moderate men, and soon saw the true 
character of the party to which they had been well 
disposed while at a distance. The tide, too, of 
public opinion sets so strongly against the federal 
proceedings, that this melted off their majority, 
and dismayed the heroes of the party. The Senate 
alone remained undismayed to the last. Firm to 
their purpose, regardless of public opinion, and 
more disposed to coerce than to court it, not a man 
of the majority gave way in the least." 

Both parties were fully aware of the magnitude 
of the interests at stake, and prepared themselves to 
make prodigious exertions to secure an ultimate 
triumph. 

One of the chief obstacles to the popularity of 
Mr. Jefferson at this crisis was the fact, that he was 
charged by popular rumor with having sent Dr. Lo- 
gan of Philadelphia on a private mission of con- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. • 241 

ciliation to Paris, after the defeat of the Embassy 
of Pinckney and Marshall. It was supposed that 
Mr. Jefferson's attachment to France, against which 
the United States were then incensed and indio-- 

o 
nant, had induced him to dispach this agent thither 

secretly in order to avert hostilities. It was proved 
that Mr. Jefterson furnished Logan with a certifi- 
cate of his citizenship and character, together with 
a passport. Dr. Logan was treated by the French 
as he deserved, with contempt, and his mission 
utterly failed. When the facts became known, the 
public mind was incensed against Logan for his 
unauthorized and unwelcome interference, and Mr. 
Jefferson received a share of the general odium, as 
having been his patron. The latter however denied 
most positively that he had commissioned Logan to 
undertake his ill-starred expedition. The Federal 
party as vehemently asserted the contrary. 

21 



242 ' THE LIFE AND TIMES 



CHAPTER XIII. 

POPULAR EXCITEMENT PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION OF 1801 — RESULT OP 

THE POPULAR VOTE — JEPFERSON's LETTER TO BURR ELECTION IN THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES — THE EQUALITY OF VOTES BETWEEN JEF- 
FERSON AND BURR INFLUENCE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON ELECTION OF 

JEFFERSON TO THE PRESIDENCY HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS — LETTER TO 

ELDREDGE GERRY — MR. JEFFERSON'S CABINET — HIS LETTER TO THOMAS 

paine — sir. livingston appointed minister to france — war between 
the united states and tripoli — its incidents and results — mr. 
Jefferson's first message to congress — measures of the adminis- 
tration — negotiations respecting Louisiana. 

As tlie period of the election approached, the ex- 
citement throughout the nation became more general 
and intense. The struggle between the party about 
to be driven from power, and the party about to 
to secure it, was bitter and violent. Never perhaps 
in the history of the country was a destructive con- 
flict and collision so imminent as at this crisis of the 
national history. The election took place in Ifo- 
vember. Jefferson and Burr were the candidates 
of the Republicans ; John Adams and Charles C. 
Pinckney were the candidates of the Federalists. 
The votes given to Jefferson and Burr were those of 
New York, twelve ; of Pennsylvania, eight out of 
fifteen ; of Maryland, five out of ten ; of Virginia, 
twenty-one ; of Kentucky, four ; of North Carolina, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 243 

eight out of twelve ; of Tennessee, three ; of South 
Carolina, eight ; of Georgia, four. The Repnhlicans 
thus received seventy-three out of one hundred and 
thirty-eight votes. The Federalists received sixty- 
five votes, one of which was given to Mr. Jay, and 
the balance to Messrs. Adams and Pinckney. Mr. 
Hamilton, being convinced of the unfitness of Mr. 
Adams for a second term of ofiice, from the unpopu- 
larity with which he had covered the Federal party 
during his first administration, was opposed to his 
re-election ; and was the means of preventing the 
votes of South Carolina from being given to Mr. 
Adams, in consequence of the preparation of a pam- 
phlet which clearly set forth the fatal defects and 
blunders of that ofiicer. But by a malicious and 
crafty trick of Burr, the contents of that pamphlet 
were prematurely published and perverted in such a 
manner, that it was made instrumental in the defeat 
not only of Mr. Adams, in South Carolina, but also 
of Mr. Pinckney ; a result which was utterly hostile 
to the wishes of Mr, Hamilton, as well as of a large 
majority of the Federal party, who earnestly desired 
to promote the election of Mr. Pinckney. 

At the popular election the number of votes ob- 
tained by the Republicans w^as equally divided be- 
tween Jefi'erson and Burr. According to the 
arrangement existing at that time, the candidate 



244 /THE LIFE AND TIMES 

who received the largest number of votes became 
President, and the second on the list became Vice- 
President. But in the present instance Jeiferson 
and Burr being equal, the election was thrown into 
the House of Representatives. Previous, however, 
to the occurrence of this event, the prevalent rumor 
was that Mr. Jefferson had received a majority over 
Mr. Burr. On the 15th of December, while he him- 
self was under that impression, Jefferson wrote a 
letter to Burr, in which he gives him to understand 
that he regretted deeply that he would not be able 
to offer him a place in his Cabinet. Says he : " I 
feel most sensibly the loss we sustain of your aid in 
our new administration. It leaves a chasm in my 
arrangements which cannot be adequately tilled up. 
I had endeavored to compose an administration 
whose talents, integrity, names and dispositions 
should at once inspire unbounded confidence in the 
public mind, and insure a perfect harmony in the con- 
duct of the public business." And yet Mr. Jefferson 
declares in his Diary, in I'eference to this same man, 
that very soon after his acquaintance with Mr. Burr, 
his conduct had inspired him with distrust.* This 
inconsistency is one out of many evidences which 
might be adduced to show that Mr, Jefferson was a 
supple politician, who, with very great craft, made 

* Vide Jefifei'sou's Correspondeace. Vol. V., p. 520. 



^ OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 245 

himself all things to all men. This peculiarity of 
his character and of his talents furnishes to some 
extent the explanation of his constant attainment of 
office through the whole course of his life. 

After the result of the election had become 
known, the popular excitement became still more 
intense. The Republicans were overwhelmed with 
terror lest by some means the election in tlie House 
might be turned by the Federalists to the ultimate 
defeat of their opponents. The Republicans de- 
termined that if the Federalists used their majority 
in Congress to defeat the popular will, either in 
preventing an election, or by choosing different 
persons from those already designated by the ma- 
jority of the nation, the attempt should be crushed by 
force. The republican governors both of Virginia 
and Pennsylvania were prepared to march a military 
force to Washington, in order to overturn the 
usurpers, undo what they might have done, and 
refer the matter back again directly to the people. 

We will not follow all the details of this memora- 
ble conflict, which shook the nation to its centre. 
The balloting began in the House on the 11th of 
February, 1801. Thirty -five ballots were given 
without any change or variation. These occupied 
six days ; during which period the scene presented 
was a singular one. The issue being uncertain, 
21* 



246 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

terror began to pervade the publie mind. This was 
the period of anarchy, respecting which Burr after- 
ward declared that, had he been disposed to over- 
turn the government, like Cromwell or Bonaparte, 
he could have done it with the greatest ease, by 
marching at the head of five hundred soldiers into 
the house, dissolving the Assembly by force, and as- 
suming the reins of authority. The position and 
relative strength of parties were such, that the bal- 
lotings bid fair to become endless, the Democratic 
delegates voting uniformly in such a ratio that a tie 
existed between Jeiferson and Burr ; and the Fede- 
ralists, unable to elect their own candidates, seemed 
indisposed to confer any of their votes upon either 
of the candidates of the rival party. The state of 
affairs was daily becoming more desperate and 
perilous. 

At this crisis the magnanimity and patriotism of 
Alexander Hamilton saved the country. Finding 
that the posture of affairs was becoming more dan- 
gerous from day to day, in consequence of treason- 
able and violent measures of redress which began 
to be suggested both by certain portions of the 
Federal party and of the Democratic, he resolved 
to use his great influence with the Federalists to 
put an end to the confusion, and secure a competent 
majority to his ancient and implacable foe, Mr. Jef- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 247 

ferson, iu opposition to Mr. Burr, whom he regarded 
as an unprincipled man. Hamilton was willing to 
forget his private wrongs to promote the welfare of 
his country. In a letter to a senator of this date he 
says : If tliere he a man in the world I ought to hate^ 
it is Jifferson. With Burr I have always been per- 
sonally well. But the public good must be paramount 
to every private consideration." To a member of the 
House he writes as follows : " To contribute to the 
disappointment and mortification of Mr. Jefferson^ 
would be on my part only to retaliate for unequivocal 
proofs of enmity ; but in a case like this, it would be 
base to listen to personal considerations.'' 

Mr. Hamilton used his influence in accordance 
with these principles; and on the thirty-sixth ballot, 
which occurred on the 17th of February, Mr. Jeffer- 
son received the votes of ten states out of the six- 
teen. These were New York, N^ew Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, 
Kentucky, Vermont and Maryland. Four states — ■ 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and 
Ehode Island — voted for Mr. Burr ; and South Ca- 
rolina and Delaware voted blank ballots. So little 
appreciation had Mr. Jefferson of the real power 
which put him in his high place, that he wrote as 
follows to Mr. Monroe on the 15th of February : 

" If they could have been permitted to pass a law 



248 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

for putting the government into the hands of an 
officer, they certainly would have prevented an 
election. But we thought it hest to declare openly 
and firmly, one and all, that the day such an act 
passed, the Middle States would arm, and that no 
such usurpation, even for a single day, should be 
submitted to. This first shook them, and they 
were completely alarmed at tl>e resource for which 
we declared, to wit, a convention, to reorganize the 
government, and to amend it. The very word con- 
vention gives them the horrors; as in the present 
democratical spirit of America, they fear they should 
lose some of the favorite morsels of the Constitution. 
Many attempts have been made to obtain terms 
from me. I have declared to them unequivocally, 
that I would not receive the government on capitula- 
tion ; that I would not go into it with my hands tied." 

The following extract from his Inaugural Address 
will give a correct idea of the policy and principles 
according to which he had determined to administer 
the government : 

"Friends and fellow-citizens: Called upon to un- 
dertake the duties of the first executive office of our 
country, I avail myself of the presence of that por- 
tion of my fellow-citizens which are here assembled, 
to express my grateful thanks for the favor with 
which they have been pleased to look toward me, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 249 

to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is 
above my talents, and that I approach it with tlio.-^e 
anxious and awful presentiments, which the great- 
ness of the charge, and the weakness of my powers, 
so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a 
wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with 
the rich produce of their industry ; engaged in com- 
merce with nations, . who feel power and forget 
right; advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the 
reach of mortal eye ; when I contemplate these 
transcendant objects, and see the honor, the happi- 
ness, and the hopes of this beloved country, com- 
mitted to the issue and the auspices of this day, I 
shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself 
before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly 
indeed should I despair, did not the presence of 
many whom I here see, remind me that in the other 
high authorities provided by our Constitution, I 
shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of 
zeal, on which to rely under all difficulties. To you 
then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign 
functions of legislation, and to those associated with 
you, I look with encouragement for that guidance 
and support which may enable us to steer with safety 
the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst 
the conflicting elements of a troubled world. 

"During the contest of opinion throngh which 



250 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

we have passed, the animation of discussions and 
exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which 
might impose on strangers unused to think freely, 
and to speak and to write what they think ; but 
this being now decided by the voice of the nation, 
announced according to the rules of the Constitu- 
tion, all will of course arrange themselves under the 
will of the law, and unite in common eiforts for the 
common good. All too will bear in mind this sacred 
principle, that though the will of the majority is 
in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must 
be reasonable ; that the minority possess their equal 
rights, which equal laws must protect, and to vio- 
late would be oppression. Let us then, fellow- 
citizens, unite with one heart and one mind ; let us 
restore to social intercourse that harmony and affec- 
tion, without which liberty and even life itself are 
but dreary things ; and let us reflect that having 
banished from our land that religions intolerance 
under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we 
have yet gained little if we countenance a political 
intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as 
bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes 
and convulsions of the ancient world, during the 
agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through 
blood and slaughter his long lost liberty, it was not 
wonderful that the agitation of the billows should 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOJf. 251 

reach even this distant and peaceful shore — that this 
should be more felt and feared bj some and less by 
others, and should divide opinions as to measures 
of safety ; but every difference of opinion, is not a 
difference of principle. We have called by different 
names, brethren of the same principle. We are all 
Republicans — all Federalists. If there be any 
among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or 
to change its republican form, let them stand undis- 
turbed as monuments of the safety with which error 
of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free 
to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest 
men fear that a republican government cannot be 
strong; that this government is not strong enough. 
But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of suc- 
cessful experiment, abandon a government which 
has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic 
and visionary fear that this government, the world's 
best hope, may by possibility want energy to pre- 
serve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the con- 
trary, the strongest government on earth. I be- 
lieve it the only one w^here every man, at the call 
of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and 
would meet invasions of the public order as his own 
personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man 
cannot be trusted with the government of himself. 
Can he then be trusted with the government of 



252 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

others ? Or have we found angels in the form of 
kings to govern him ? Let history answer the ques- 
tion. Let us then, with courage and confidence, 
pursue our own Federal and RepubUcan principles ; 
our attachment to union and representative govern- 
ment. Kindly separated by nature, and a wide 
ocean, from the exterminating havoc of one quarter 
of the globe ; too high minded to endure the degra- 
dations of the others ; possessing a chosen country, 
with room enough for descendants to the thousandth 
and thousandth generation ; entertaining a due 
sense of our equal right to the use of our own facul- 
ties, to the acquisition of our own industry, to honor 
and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting 
not from birth but from our actions, and their sense 
of them ; enlightened by a benign religion, professed 
indeed and practiced in various forms, yet all of 
them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, grati- 
tude, and the love of man ; acknowledging and 
adoring an over-ruling Providence, which by all its 
dispensations proves that it delights in the happi- 
ness of man here, and his greater happiness hereaf- 
ter ; with all these blessings, what more is necessary 
to make us a happy and prosperous people ? Still 
one thing more, fellow-citizens ; a wise and frugal 
government, which restraining men from injuring 
one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regu- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 253 

late their own pursuits of industry and improve- 
ment, and shall not take from the mouth of labor 
the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good 
government ; and this is necessary to close the circle 
of our felicities. 

"About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise 
of duties which comprehend every thing dear and 
valua])le to you, it is proper you should understand 
what I deem the essential principles of our govern- 
ment, and consequently those which ought to shape 
its administration. I will compress them within the 
narrowest compass they will bear, stating the gene- 
ral principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and 
exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persua- 
sion, religious or political ; peace, commerce and 
honest friendship with all nations; entangling alli- 
ances with none ; the support of the State govern- 
ments in all their rights, as the most competent 
administration for our domestic concerns, and the 
surest bulwark against anti-republican tendencies ; 
the preservation of the general government in its 
whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of 
our peace at home and safety abroad ; a jealous 
care of the right of election by the people ; a mild 
and safe corrective of abuses, which are lopped by 
the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies 
are unprovided ; absolute acquiescence in the deci- 
22 



254 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

si (MIS of tliG majority, the vital principle of republics, 
from which is no appeal but to force, the vital prin- 
ciple and immediate parent of despotism ; a well- 
disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and 
for the first moments of war, till regulars may re- 
lieve them ; the supremacy of the civil over the 
military authority ; economy in the public expense, 
that labor may be lightly burdened ; the honest 
payment of our debts, and sacred preservation of 
the public faith ; encouragement of agriculture, and 
of commerce as its handmaid ; the difi"usion of in- 
formation and arraignment of all abuses at the bar 
of public reason ; freedom of religion, freedom of 
the press, and freedom of the person under protec- 
tion of the habeas corpus ; and trial by juries im- 
partially selected. These principles form the bright 
constellation which has gone before us, and guided 
our steps through an age of revolution and reforma- 
tion. The wisdom of all our sages, and blood of 
our heroes, have been devoted to their attainment ; 
they should be the creed of our political faith ; the 
text of civic instruction ; the touchstone by which 
to try the services of those we trust ; and, should 
we wander from them in moments of error or of 
alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and regain 
the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and 
safety." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 255 

Further light maybe obtained in reference to the 
feelings and purposes of the new President from the 
following extract from a letter to Eldredge Gerry, 
dated March 29, 1801 : 

" I thought, on your return, that if you had come 
forward boldly, and appealed to the public by a full 
statement, it would have had a great effect in your 
favor personally, and that of the republican cause, 
then oppressed almost unto death. But I judged 
from a tact of the southern pulse. I suspect that 
of the north was different, and decided your con- 
duct, and perhaps it has been as well. If the revolu- 
tion of sentiment has been later, it has perhaps been 
not less sure. At length it has arrived. "Wliat 
with the natural current of opinion, which has been 
setting over to us for eighteen months, and the im- 
mense impetus which was given to it from the 11th 
to the 17th of February, we may now say that the 
United States, from New York southwardly, are as 
unanimous in the principles of '76, as they were in 
'76. The only difference is, that the leaders who 
remain behind are more numerous and bolder than 
the apostles of toryism in '76. The reason is, that 
we are now justly more tolerant than we could 
safely have been then, circumstanced as we were. 
Your part of the Union, though as absolutely repub- 
lican as ours, had drunk deeper of the delusion, and 



256 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

is therefore slower in recovering from it. The fiegis 
of government, and the temples of religion and of 
justice, have all been prostituted there, to toll us 
back to the times when we burnt witches. But 
your people will rise again. They will awake like 
Samson from his sleep, and carry away the gates 
and posts of the city. You, my friend, are destined 
to rally them again under their former banners, and 
when called to the post, exercise it with firmness 
and with inflexible adherence to your own princi- 
ples. The people will support you, notwithstanding 
the bowlings of the ravenous crew from whose jaws 
they are escaping. It will be a great blessing to 
our country, if we can once more restore harmony 
and social love among its citizens. I confess, as to 
myself, it is almost the first object of my heart, and 
one to which I would sacrifice every thing but prin- 
ciple. With the people I have hopes of eflecting it. 
But their coryphaei are iucurables. I expect little 
from them. 

" I was not deluded by the eulogiums of the pub- 
lic papers in the first moments of change. If they 
could have continued to get all the loaves and 
fishes, that is, if I would have gone over to them, 
they would continue to eulogize. But I well knew 
that the moment that such removals should take 
place, as the justice of the preceding administration 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 257 

ought to have executed, their hue and cry would be 
set up, and they would take their old stand. I shall 
disregard that also. Mr. Adams's last appoint- 
ments, when he knew he was naming counselors 
and aids for me, and not for himself, I set aside as 
far as depends on me. OflBcers who have been 
guilty of gross abuses of office, such as marshals 
packing juries, &c., I shall now remove, as ray pre- 
decessor ought in justice to have done. The in- 
stances will be few, and governed by strict rule, not 
party passion. The right of opinion shall suffer no 
invasion from me. Those who have acted well 
have nothing to fear, however they may have dif- 
fered from me in opinion ; those that have done ill, 
however, have nothing to hope ; nor shall I fail to 
do justice, lest it should be ascribed to that differ- 
ence of opinion. A coalition of sentiments is not 
for the interest of the printers. They, like the 
clergy, live by the zeal they can kindle, and the 
schisms they can create. It is the contest of opinion 
in politics, as well as religion, which makes us take 
great interest in them, and bestow our money libe- 
rally on those who furnish aliment to our appetite. 
The mild and simple principles of the Christian 
philosophy would produce too much calm, too much 
regularity of good, to extract from its disciples a 
support for a numerous priesthood, were they not 
22* 



253 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

to sophisticate it, ramify it, split it into hairs, and 
twist its texts till they cover the divine morality of 
its author with mysteries, and require a priesthood 
to explain them. The Quakers seem to have dis- 
covered this. They have no priests, therefore no 
schisms. They judge of the text by the dictates of 
common sense and common morality." 

In the formation of his cabinet Mr. Jefferson 
selected the following persons : Mr. Madison was 
made Secretary of State ; Mr. Gallatin, Secretary 
of the Treasury ; General Dearborn of Massachu- 
eetts. Secretary of War ; Robert Smith of Maryland 
was appointed Secretary of the Navy; and Levi 
Lincoln of Massachusetts, Attorney-General. 

It was at this period that Mr. Jefferson addressed 
the following important letter to Thomas Paine, 
the author of the Age of Reason. It indicates his 
high esteem for the character and even for some of 
the sentiments of that celebrated man : 

" Dear Sir : Yonr letters of October the 1st, 4th, 
6th and 16th, came duly to hand, and the papers 
which they covered were, according to your permis- 
sion, published in the newspapers, and in a pamph- 
let, and under your own name. These papers contain 
precisely our principles, and I hope they will be gene- 
rally recognized here. The return of our citizens 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 259 

from the freuzy into which they had been wrought 
partly by ill conduct in France, partly by artifices 
practiced on them, is almost entire, and will, I be- 
lieve, become quite so. But these details, too 
minute and long for a letter, will be better developed 
by Mr. Dawson, the bearer of this, a member of the 
late Congress, to whom I refer you for them. Pie 
goes in the Maryland, a sloop of war, which will 
wait a few days at Havre to receive his letters, to be 
written on his arrival at Paris. You expressed a 
wish to get a passage to this country in a public 
vessel. Mr. Dawson is charged with orders to the 
captain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate 
you with a passage back, if you can be ready to de- 
part at such short warning. Robert R. Livingston 
is appointed minister plenipotentiary to the republic 
of France, but will not leave this till we receive the 
ratification of the convention by Mr. Dawson. I 
am in hopes you will find us returned generally to 
Bentiments worthy of former times. In these it will 
be your glory to have steadily labored, and with as 
much eft'ect as any man living. That you may long 
live to continue your useful labors, and to reap their 
reward in the thankfulness of nations, is my sincere 
prayer. Accept assurances of my high esteem and 
affectionate attachment." 



260 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

One of the first acts of the new administration was 
to appoint Chancellor Livingston, of New York, 
minister to France. It was on this occasion that 
Mr. Jefferson, in his instructions to him, asserted 
the great democratic principle that " free ships make 
free goods ;" and while he admitted that the preva- 
lent practice of nations was on the contrary doctrine, 
he held that a reform should take place on the sub- 
ject. He contended that a ship sailing on the high 
seas was solely within the jurisdiction of the nation 
to which it belonged, and he denied the reasonable- 
ness of the exception for contraband. He desired 
Mr. Livingston to cooperate as far as he could in 
establishing the principle abroad. 

In May, 1801, Mr. Jefferson dispatched Commo- 
dore Dale with a squadron of three frigates and a 
sloop-of-war to the Mediterranean against the 
bashaw of Tripoli, who had declared war against 
the United States, and had commenced piratical 
operations against our commerce. The squadron 
arrived off Tripoli in August, immediately block- 
aded it, and captured a polacre of fourteen guns. 
Many engagements ensued at successive periods 
subsequently. The Enterprise under Captain 
Sterret, was victorious in an action with a Tripolitan 
corsair off Malta. Commodore Murray, in the 
frigate Constitution, was attacked off' Tripoli by a 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 261 

formidable array of gnn-boats, and compelled them 
to retire with immense loss. The frigate Philadel- 
phia, Captain Bainbridge, ran upon a rock when 
surrounded by the enemy's boats, and his crew of 
three hundred men were compelled to surrender. 
The vessel herself was afterward retaken from the 
enemy by Captain Stephen Decatur. The Ameri- 
cans now formed a coalition with Hamet, a deposed 
brother of the reigning bashaw, for the purpose of 
reinstating him on the throne. The probability of 
this result brought the bashaw to terms ; a favora- 
ble peace was concluded by Colonel Lear ; and 
the American prisoners, who had been treated 
with the most horrid barbarity, were released. 

Congress assembled on the first Monday in De- 
cember, and Mr. Jefferson sent to them his written 
message, instead of delivering an oral speech, as 
had previously been the custom. The following is 
an extract from the letter which accompanied the 
message : 

" The circumstances under which w^e find our- 
selves at this place rendering inconvenient the mode 
heretofore practiced, of making by personal address 
the first communications between the legislative 
and executive branches, I have adopted that by 
message, as used on all subsequent occasions 
through the session. In doing this I have had prin- 



262 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

cipal regard to the convenience of the legislature, to 
the economy of their time, to their relief from the 
embarrassment of immediate answers on subjects 
not yet fully before them, and to the benefits thence 
resulting to the public afiairs. Trusting that a pro- 
cedure founded on these motives will meet their 
approbation, I beg leave through you, sir, to com- 
municate the inclosed message, with the documents 
accompanying it, to the honorable the Senate, and 
pray you to accept for yourself and them the homage 
of my high respect and consideration." The reason, 
however, which weighed with him probably more 
than any other was, that a speech savored of the 
forms of royalty. But he well knew that this motive 
would be fully understood and properly appreciated 
by those whose favor and approbation he was most 
desirous of obtaining. 

In this message Mr. Jefierson spoke of the 
various subjects which were then of prominent im- 
portance to the nation — including the census, the 
army, navy, taxation, the importance of the militia, 
agriculture, commerce, manufactures, navigation, 
the judiciary system, and a revision of the laws of 
naturalization. 

During the year 1802 many changes and reforms 
were introduced into the government of the country, 
in most of which the Executive acquiesced. The 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 263 

Republican party had a small majority in both 
Houses, and were enabled to carry their measures. 
The two great subjects of party conflict were the 
repeal of the internal taxes, and of the law which 
had been passed creating a new set of Federal 
courts. 

In 1801 Spain had ceded Louisiana to France. 
This event excited the indignation and disgust of 
the citizens of the United States, inasmuch as the 
possession of Louisiana gave France the control of 
the port of New Orleans, which was the only outlet 
between the Western States and the Atlantic. In 
April, 1802, Mr. Jefferson addressed a letter to Mr. 
Livingston in Paris, in which he showed the evils 
which would ensue from the possession of this port 
and the surrounding country by France, and the 
infinite causes of irritation which would ensue 
between the two countries. He directed Mr. Liv- 
ingston to commence negotiations with the French 
government, in reference to the final adjustment of 
this important matter, and the ultimate disposal of 
Louisiana in such a way that, by ceding or selling 
that territory to the United States, the interests of 
both countries might be secured, and the dangers 
of impending conflict between them might be 
happily averted. 



264 ' THE LIFE AND TIMES 



CHAPTER XIV. 

the settlement op the yazoo claims in alabama and mississippi — the 
purchase op louisiana from france — letter of mr. jefferson on 
the subject to general gates — repeal op the bankrupt law — mr. 
Jefferson's views on the united states bank — death of mrs_ 
EPPEs — MR. Jefferson's gun-boat system — results of his first 
administration — MR. Jefferson's motives and excuses for a second 

election — HIS letter to ALEXANDER I., CZAR OF RUSSIA. 

An important measure connected with the ad- 
ministration in 1803, was the passage of a law which 
provided for the settlement of various claims to 
lands located in that vast tract of country extending 
from the western borders of South Carolina and 
Georgia to the Mississippi River. This country now 
constitutes the States of Alabama and Mississippi. 
Until the year 1803, the title of the Indians to this 
territory remained undisputed. Then South Caro- 
lina demanded that portion of it lying along the 
Bouthern boundary of Tennessee, by virtue of her 
original charter. Georgia also claimed the whole 
of it, under her own charter. The United States 
afterward became the claimant, by the right of con- 
quest and the treaty of peace. 

Commissioners had been appointed by the United 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 2G5 

States to adjust the claim with Georgia, and also to 
satisfy the demands of the settlers. Some of the 
latter held their titles from grants made by the State 
of Georgia, and some from grants obtained from 
the United States. The former claimants endeav- 
ored to obtain a recognition and settlement of their 
rights from the United States, and were known by 
the epithet of the Yazoos. The greatest foe of 
these claimants was John Randolph of Roanoke, 
who rendered himself celebrated by his fierce, 
powerful, and sarcastic eloquence against their 
demands. The conflict raged during eleven years, 
until at length it was finally settled in 1814, on the 
recommendation made by the commissioners, by 
the purchase of the rights of the Yazoo claimants 
by the United States for five millions of dollars. 

The negotiation with France for the purchase of 
Louisiana was attended with equal and more imme- 
diate success. The American ministers in Paris not 
only succeeded in negotiating for New Orleans and 
the Floridas, but were able to effect a purchase of 
the whole of Louisiana, which contained a territory 
equal in extent to the whole previous territorial 
possessions of the United States. 

By this treaty of purchase eleven millions, two 

hundred and fifty thousand dollars were to be paid 

to France, in six per cent, stock, three months after 
23 



268 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

the delivery of the possession of the country; and 
certain claims held by American citizens against 
France, which were about equal to three and a half 
millions, were to be assumed by the United States. 
This territory was to be admitted to the confederacy 
as soon as it complied with the requirements of the 
Constitution. This acquired territory contained 
about a million of square miles, and bad about 
ninety thousand civilized inhabitants in addition to 
the savages who still roamed over it. 

Mr. Jefferson was highly gratified at the conclu- 
sion of this treaty. It completed the supremacy of 
the United States throughout the southern peninsula, 
and gave compactness and unity to the territorial 
confines of the confederacy. In a letter to General 
Gates, he thus refers to this subject. It is dated at 
"Washington, July 11, 1803. 

Dear General : I accept with pleasure, and with 
pleasure reciprocate your congratulations on the 
acquisition of Louisiana; for it is a subject of mu- 
tual congratulation, as it interests every man of the 
nation. The territory acquired, as it includes all 
the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi, has more 
than doubled the area of the United States, and the 
new part is not inferior to the old in soil, climate, 
productions, and important communications. If our 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 267 

legislature dispose of it with the wisdom we have a 
right to expect, they may make it the means of 
tempting all our Indians on the east side of the 
Mississippi to remove to the West, and of condensing 
instead of scattering our population. I find our 
opposition is very willing to pluck feathers from 
Monroe, although not fond of sticking them into 
Livingston's coat. The truth is, both have a just 
portion of merit ; and were it necessary, or proper, 
it would be shown that each has rendered peculiar 
services." 

In another letter to Judge Breckenridge, he thus 
follows up his ideas of exultation at this bright 
achievement of his administration : — " Objections 
are raising to the eastward against the vast extent 
of our boundaries, and propositions are made to 
exchange Louisiana, or a part of it, for the Floridas. 
But, as I have said, we shall get the Floridas with- 
out, and I would not give one inch of the waters of 
the Mississippi to any nation ; because I see, in a 
light very important to our peace, the exclusive 
right to its navigation, and the admission of no 
nation into it, but as into the Potomac or Delaware, 
with our consent and under our police. These 
federalists see in this acquisition the formation of a 
new confederacy, embracing all the waters of the 



268 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Mississippi, on both sides of it, and a separation of 
its eastern waters from us." 

One of the virtues of the character of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, consisted in the simplicity of his mind, which 
influenced him to avoid ostentation, pomp, ceremony 
and vain parade, and inclined him to give a prefer- 
ence to every mode of performing an action which 
combined the greatest convenience, and involved the 
least display. An application having been made to 
him by some of the citizens of Boston, in August, 
1803, to ascertain the date of his birth, in order to 
celebrate his birthday, he declined to communicate 
the information in a letter to Levi Lincoln, couched 
in the following words : " "With respect to the day 
on which they wish to fix their anniversary, they 
may be told, that disapproving myself of transferring 
the honors and veneration for the great birthday of 
our republic to any individual, or of dividing them 
with individuals, I have declined letting my own 
birthday be known, and have engaged my family 
not to communicate it. This has been the uniform 
answer to every application of the kind." 

Another noteworthy feature of the first adminis- 
tration of Mr. Jefierson was the repeal of the 
bankrupt law which had been first enacted in one- 
of the late years of Mr. Adams' administration. 
This law, which had authorized the discharge of a 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 269 

(leutor from all his preceding debts on the consent 
of a majority of his creditors, had been regarded 
as an invidious privilege granted to the mercantile 
community, especially in the Southern States, 
where the agricultural interest was of more real 
value and importance to the community tlian the 
commercial. 

At this period a proposition was made in Congress 
to create a branch of the United States Bank in 
New Orleans. Mr. Jefferson embraced this oppor- 
tunity to repeat his first objections to that colossal 
institution, in the following language : 

"This institution is one of the most deadly hos- 
tility existing against the principles and forms of 
our Constitution. The nation is, at this time, so 
strong and united in its sentiments, that it cannot 
be shaken at this moment. But suppose a series of 
untoward events should occur, sufficient to bring 
into doubt the competency of a republican govern- 
ment to meet a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge 
the confidence of the people in the public function- 
aries ; an institution like this, penetrating by its 
branches every part of the Union, acting by com- 
mand and in phalanx, may in a critical moment 
upset the government. I deem no government safe 
which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted 
authorities, or any other authority than that of the 
23* 



270 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

nation, or its regular functionaries. What an ob- 
struction could not this bank of the United States, 
with all its branch banks, be in time of war? It 
might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or 
withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further 
growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile ?" 

These general considerations are then followed by 
cogent arguments ad honmiem. " That it is hostile 
we know, 1. From a knowledge of the principles of 
the persons composing the body of directors in every 
bank, principal, or branch ; and those of most of the 
stockholders. 2, From their opposition to the 
measures and principles of the government, and to 
tlie election of those friendly to them ; and 3. From 
the sentiments of the newspapers they support. 
Now, while we are strong, it is the greatest duty we 
owe to the safety of our Constitution, to bring this 
powerful enemy to a perfect subordination under its 
authorities. The first measure would be to reduce 
them to an equal footing only with other banks, as 
to the favors of the government. But in order to be 
able to meet a general combination of the banks 
against us, in a critical emergency, could we not 
make a beginning toward an independent use of our 
own money, toward holding our own deposits in all 
the banks where it is received, and letting the 
treasurer give his draft or note, for payment at any 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 271 

particular place, whicli in a well-conducted govern- 
ment ought to have as much credit as any private 
draft, or bank-note or bill, and would give us the 
same facilities which we derive from the banks ?" 

In the spring of 1804 Mr. Jeflerson sufi'ered a 
severe domestic bereavement in the death of Mrs. 
Eppes, one of his daughters. On this occasion the 
wife of ex-President Adams addressed him a letter 
of condolence, to which Mr. Jefferson responded in 
a similar spirit of friendship and conciliation. This 
correspondence became the cause of the renewal of 
the friendship which had formerly existed between 
Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Adams, and continued unin- 
terruptedly during many years, until death put an 
end to the existence of both, on the same anniversary 
of the birthday of the nation's liberties. To Gov- 
ernor Page Mr. Jefferson writes, in reference to this 
calamity : 

" Others," he says, " may lose of their abundance, 
but I of my wants have lost even the half of all I 
had. My evening prospects now hang on the slen- 
der thread of a single life. Perhaps I may be des- 
tined to see even this last cord of parental affection 
broken. The hope with which I had looked forward 
to the moment when, resigning public cares to 
younger hands, I was to retire to that domestic 



2T2 THE I.irE AND TIMES 

comfort from which the last great step is to be taken, 
is fearfully blighted." 

On the reassembling of Congress, on the 5th of 
November, Mr. Jefferson sent in his opening mes- 
sage. The chief peculiarity of this message is, that 
he therein recommends the adoption of the system 
of gun-boats for the protection of the harbors. These 
gun-boats he termed floating-batteries ; and he esti- 
mated that two hundred and fifty of them would 
effectually defend the fifteen harbors and the coasts 
of the United States. These he termed a cheap 
marine ; and Congress was induced to pass an ap- 
propriation of sixty thousand dollars, for the purpose 
of testing the feasibility of the plan. The matter 
excited much discussion at the time, and the gun- 
boats were generally opposed and condemned by 
the officers of the navy. An opportunity was 
eagerly waited for to test the availability of this new 
arm of the service ; and it was not long before such 
an opportunity was afforded. As these boats were 
sailing along the coast a violent storm arose, when 
some of them were driven ashore, some were 
swamped, and the whole of them destroyed or 
rendered entirely unfit for service. The gun-boats 
were thus proved to be utterly unable to resist even 
the pacific perils of the deep ; and their total ruin 
cast a torrent of popular ridicule on the Executive, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 273 

who had so strenuously insisted on their superior 
availability and merit. 

During the first administration of Jefferson, which 
now terminated, the public debt had been reduced 
more than twelve millions ; the territorial area of 
the United States had been doubled ; man}' expen- 
sive revenue offices had been abolished ; the taxes 
had been greatly diminished ; a war with France 
and Spain had been skillfully and honorably averted ; 
the Tripolitans had been conquered ; successful war 
had been made on Tunis and Algiers; and inter- 
nal prosperity, wealth, and improvement had prodi- 
giously increased. The first administration' of Mr. 
Jefferson, therefore, terminated in a halo of popu- 
larity and splendor, which rendered his re-election 
inevitable ; which made him for a brief period 
the idol of the nation, and the possessor of a degree 
of adulation second in intensity only to that which 
had become the permanent and unchanging inherit- 
ance of Washington. 

He commenced his second administration on the 
4th of Marchy 1805. The causes which induced 
him to accept a re-election, which resulted in a 
much greater majority than he had obtained on the 
first, are stated by Mr. Jefferson himself in the fol- 
lowing letter to Mr. Gerry : 

"I sincerely regret that the unbounded calumnies 



274 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

of the Federal party have obliged me to throw my- 
self on the verdict of my country for trial, my great 
desire having been to retire at the end of the pre- 
sent term, to a life of tranquillity ; and it was my 
decided purpose when I entered into office. They 
force my continuance. If we can keep the vessel 
of state as steadily in her course for another four 
years, my earthly purposes will be accomplished, 
and I shall be free to enjoy, as you are doing, my 
family, my farm, and my books." When it is con- 
sidered that Mr. Jefferson was a zealous and primi- 
tive dissenter from the unlimited re-eligibility of 
the executive ; and that he espoused wdth ardor 
short terms of office, and had originally intended to 
hold the office but four years, it must be deeply 
lamented that he suffered the clamor of enemies to 
divert him from establishing a precedent of so much 
vital consequence to the purity and duration of our 
free institutions. The reasons he adduces for this 
dereliction are such as might with equal force be 
alleged for a continuance in the office for life. 
How much of real glory he lost by missing this 
opportunity^ of putting the seal of sincerity and the 
test of consistency on his original professions, can 
only be estimated by a full and just consideration 
of the difficulty attending the sacrifice of ambition 
to principle ; of resisting the temptation of personal 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 275 

vauity for the enduring future applause of man- 
kind. 

Devoted to science, and at all times intent on im- 
provements in literature and knowledge, as well as 
politics and Movernment, Mr. Jefferson now pro- 
jected tlie expedition of Lewis and Clarke to the 
Columbia River, for the purpose of exploring and 
ascertaining the geography, natural history, climate, 
riches, resources, and peculiarities of the new pur- 
chase of the Territory of Louisiana. 
^ It was at this period that Mr. Jefferson addressed 
a letter to the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia, in 
behalf of the principle of neutral rights, which he 
earnestly desired might be duly secured by the 
treaties which were about to be formed by Napoleon 
with the powers of Europe, at the general pacifica- 
tion which was then anticipated. In this remark- 
able letter, after speaking of his gratification at see- 
ing advanced to the government of so extensive a 
portion of the earth, and at so early a period of his 
life, a sovereign whose ruling desire was the hap- 
piness of his people, and whose philanthropy was 
extended to " a distant and infant nation, unoftend- 
iug in its course and unambitious in its views," he 
further compliments the emperor on his eflbrts to- 
ward the pacification of Europe, and reminds him 
of the common interest which the United States 



276 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

and the northern nations of Europe have in preserv- 
ing neutral rights. He suggests that the emperor 
and Napoleon have it in their power, at the ap- 
proaching pacification, to render eminent services 
to nations in general, bj incorporating into the act 
of pacification a correct definition of the rights of 
neutrals on the high seas, and " that these rights 
thus defined could be enforced, if further sanction 
were necessary, by an exclusion of the nation vio- 
lating them from all commerce with the rest." 

"Having taken," he says, "no part in the past or 
existing troubles of Europe, we have no part to act 
on its pacification. But as principles may then be 
settled in which we have a deep interest, it is a great 
happiness for us that they are placed under the pro- 
tection of an umpire, who, looking beyond the nar- 
row bounds of an individual nation, will take under 
the cover of his equity the rights of the absent and 
unrepresented. It is only by a happy concurrence 
of good characters and good occasions, that a step 
can now and then be taken to advance the well- 
being of nations. If the present occasion be good, 
I am sure your majesty's character will not be want- 
ing to avail the world of it. By monuments of such 
good ofllces may your life become an epoch in the 
history of the condition of men, and may He who 
called it into being, for the good of the human 



OF THOxMAS JEFFERSON. 27T 

family, give it length of days and success, and have 
it always in his holy keeping." 

This communication was addressed by Mr. Jeffer- 
son directly to the Autocrat, and not to his Minister 
of Foreign Afiairs, through the American Secretary 
of State, as diplomatic usage would have required. 
In pursuing this course, the President designed to 
carry out and illustrate the supposed simplicity of 
republican forms, in every department of his admi- 
nistration, from the most dignified to the most 
minute. 
24 



2<8 THE LIFE AND TIMES 



CHAPTER XV. 

the conspiracy of aaron burr — the nature of his enterprise — mr. 
■ Randolph's resolution in congress — arrest of col. burr — inci- 
dents OF THE TRIAL — ELOQUENCE OF AVM. WIRT — JEFFERSON's PREJU- 
DICES AGAINST BURR — THE EMBARGO LAW — MR. JEFKERSON's LAST 
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS — ADDRESSES SENT TO MR. JEFFERSON ON HIS 
RETIRING — ADDRESS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF VIRGINIA — INAUGURATION 
OP MB. MADISON — MR. JEFFERSON'S FINAL RETURN TO MONTICELLO — HIS 
FEELINGS ON THIS OCCASION. 

The most important event connected with the 
second administration of Mr. Jefferson was the con- 
spiracy and trial of Aaron Burr. This celebrated 
man had lost the confidence of the Democratic party 
which had previously placed him in the office of 
Vice-President, in consequence of his supposed 
intrigues with the Federalists. He endeavored to 
regain official rank and influence by obtaining the 
post of Governor of New York. In that State many 
of his former opponents among the Federalists, 
influenced by hatred to the administration of Jeffer- 
son, were disposed to give Burr their assistance. 
The latter would have been elected had it not been 
for the determined opposition of Alexander Hamil- 
ton, who regarded Burr as a dangerous and unscru- 
pulous adventurer, and exerted himself to defeat 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 279 

,liim. The consequence of this opposition was the 
unfortunate duel, in which Hamilton became the 
victim of the insatiable vengeance of his foe. This 
deed forever blasted the prospects of Burr in New 
York, and compelled or induced him to turn his 
enterprising and crafty mind to the elaboration of 
other schemes of ambition and aggrandizement. 
Then it was that Burr formed his gigantic plans of 
conquest and glory in the far South-West. Then it 
was that he resolved to concentrate all his great 
powers on the establishment of a splendid empire, 
composed of the extreme southern territories of the 
United States, combined with a conquered portion 
of the ancient realms of Montezuma. Nor was Burr 
unfitted to the accomplishment of these lofty and 
aspiring aims. His military talents were of a high 
order, and he could lead his armed hosts to battle 
and direct their movements with the skill of a great 
commander. His talents for political intrigue were 
consummate and unrivaled ; being the most crafty, 
skillful and far-reaching tactician in the country. 
As a conqueror, as a legislator, and as a ruler. Burr 
could boast no inconsiderable resemblance in the 
universality and extent of his talents, to Napoleon 
Bonaparte. 

Burr's first object was the invasion of Mexico. A 
large part of his materials for this expedition he 



280 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

expected to obtain in the South- Western States and 
Territories. lie found however that the attachment 
of the people there to the Union, couUl not be 
moved ; and consequently he prepared to march 
first to Mexico, and achieve his first triumphs there. 
By this time the American government had ob- 
tained satisfactory information of the culpable nature 
of his movements ; if not that they were treasona- 
ble, at least that they were illegal, as being of a 
warlike nature against a country with which the 
United States were then at peace. General Wilkin- 
son was ordered immediately to proceed to New 
Orleans, and to take every possible means to defeat 
the expedition. On the 27th of November, Mr. 
Jefferson issued a proclamation cautioning all citi- 
zens against joining the enterprise; and orders were 
then issued to the United States troops, stationed at 
different points along the Ohio and Mississippi, to 
seize the boats and stores, and arrest the members 
of the expedition. 

On the 16th of January Mr. Randolph moved in 
Congress that the President be called on to impart 
such information respecting Burr's movements as 
might then be in the possession of the government. 
On the 22d of that month the call of the resolution 
was complied with. He stated in substance that 
information had been received that some boats filled 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 281 

\vitli adventurers, perhaps three or four hundred in 
number, had passed the Falls of the Ohio for the 
purpose of meeting the rendezvous appointed at the 
mouth of Cumberland River; that Burr himself 
had descended the Cumberland on the 22 d of De- 
cember with two boats ; that General Wilkinson 
had made ample preparations to defend New 
Orleans, and that orders had been issued for the 
arrest of the chief conspirator. 

In accordance with these orders, Dr. Bolman and 
Mr. Swartwout, two of Burr's principal aids, were ar- 
rested at New Orleans. On the 31st of December 
Burr himself passed Fort Massac with ten boats. But 
as he approached New Orleans he found the prepara- 
tions made by General "Wilkinson so extensive and 
efficient that he discovered the utter futility of his 
plans. He then proceeded to the Tombigbee, 
having landed with a single companion on the banks 
of the Mississippi on the 13th of January. His ulti- 
mate destination was then unknown ; but he was 
detected and arrested by the emissaries of the 
government in February, 1807. He was immediately 
conveyed on horseback to Richmond, Virginia, to 
be tried by the Federal court, held by Chief Justice 
Marshal, assisted by Justice Griffin. 

Burr reached Richmond on the 26th of March. 
The court admitted him to bail in the sum of ten 
24* 



282 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

thousand dollars, which was immediately entered 
for him hy members of the Federal party. Mr. Hay 
prosecuted for the government, assisted by William 
"Wirt. Able counsel represented the defendant, the 
chief of whom was the celebrated Luther Martin. 
It was on this memorable occasion that the stately, 
imposing, and resplendent eloquence of Wirt shone 
forth with unrivaled magnificence, in strains of 
power and pathos which will be admired, quoted, 
and read with rapture till the end of time. Even 
the stern and iron heart of Burr himself trembled, 
and his eagle eye quailed beneath the overwhelming 
torrent of scathing invective, argument, and decla- 
mation, with which that great orator and ornament 
of the American bar reviewed the events developed 
by his bold, ambitious, and desperate career. 

After a trial of three weeks, and prodigious exer- 
tions of counsel on both sides, Barr was acquitted, 
on the ground that the ofi:ense, if any, had not been 
committed within the jurisdiction of the court. It 
was Mr. Jeflferson's purpose to commence a second 
prosecution, in which the plea to the jurisdiction 
should be evaded and the charges tried entirely on 
the merits ; but the purpose was afterward aban- 
doned. Burr immediately sailed for England, 
w^here it was supposed he designed to obtain means 
for the purpose of carrying on his ambitious plans 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 283 

more successfully. In this purpose he signally 
failed ; both iu England and France he was reduced 
almost to the verge of starvation ; and he ultimately 
returned to iN'ew York, a ruined and disgraced out- 
cast. 

The chief charge against Burr in his trial was that 
of treason against the United States. That Mr. 
Jefterson himself did not believe in the justice of 
this charge at the time it was made, is evident from 
the following letter to Mr. Bowdoin, dated April 
2d, 1807 : 

" No better proof of the good faith of the United 
States could have been given, than the vigor with 
which we have acted, and the expense incurred, in 
suppressing the enterprise meditated lately by Burr, 
against Mexico. Although at first he proposed a 
separation of the western country, and on that 
ground received encouragement and aid from Yrujo, 
according to the usual spirit of his government 
toward us, yet he very early saw that the fidelity 
of the western country was not to be shaken, and 
turned himself wliolly toioard Mexico. And so popu- 
lar is an enterprise on that country, in this, that we 
had only to lie still, and he would have had fol- 
lowers enough to have been in the city of Mexico 
in six weeks." 

Mr. Jefterson evidently hated Burr personally ; 



284 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

for iu a letter to Mr. Ilay, the prosecuting officer, 
lie terms liim " an impudent, Federal bull-dog." 
Jefferson also became highly incensed against Chief 
Justice Marshall, whom he falsely and basely 
charged with endeavoring to protect and shield the 
defendant. 

The effects of the Berlin and Milan Decrees of 
Napoleon, and of the Orders in Council on the part 
of England, now began to be felt as serious aggres- 
sions on the commerce and revenue of the United 
States. The licentious and preposterous doctrines 
of blockade, proclaimed by France, and the retalia- 
tion of so monstrous a violation of the laws of na- 
tions by England, soon inflicted the most fatal 
wounds upon neutral commerce, insulting and de- 
grading to the national character, at the same time 
that it cut up its resources, plundered its wealth, and 
mutilated its marine. Impressment was added to 
robbery and confiscation, our flag being unable to 
protect the persons of our citizens from the power 
of insolent England, or secure their property from 
the rapacity of libertine France, Unhappily for this 
country and its national character, the feuds engen- 
dered by the collisions between those two countries 
among our citizens, during the French revolution, 
had enlisted the Democratic and Federal parties 
under the banners of the two European belligerents. 



OF THO-MAS JEFFERSON. 2S5 

It was known that Mr. Jefferson was partial to 
France and hated England ; and as he always pre- 
ferred peace to war, a disposition to negotiate for a 
redress of wrongs of this heinous character, was 
construed by some into a pusillanimous submission 
to the despotism of France ; and by the adverse 
party, into a degrading acquiescence in the wrongs 
of England. The Democrats called for a war with 
Great Britain ; the Federalists, and those who 
opposed French tyranny, demanded war against 
France. Mr. Jefferson desired peace, and disre- 
garding the clamors of both, proceeded to negotia- 
tion. In a letter to Lafayette in 1807, he thus pic- 
tures our distressful and embarrassing situation : — 
" I enclose you a proclamation, which will show 
you the critical footing on which we stand at pres- 
ent with England. Xever since the battle of Lex- 
ington, have I seen this country in such a state of 
of exasperation as at present. And even that did 
not produce such unanimity. The Federalists them- 
selves coalesce with us* as to the object, although 
they will return to their old trade of condemning 
every step we take toward obtaining it. ' Repara- 
tion for the past, and security for the future,' is our 
motto. Whether these will be yielded freely, or 
will require resort to non -intercourse, or to war, is 
yet to be seen. We have actually near two thou- 



286 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

sand men in the field, covering the exposed parts 
of the coast, and cutting off supplies from the Bri- 
tish vessels." 

The attack made on the frigate Chesapeake by 
the British admiral, and the Order of the British 
Council prohibiting all commerce between America 
and the ports of her enemies in Europe, unless their 
cargoes were first landed in England and duties 
there paid on re-exportation, which threatened the 
total ruin of American commerce, induced Mr. Jef- 
ferson to recommend an embargo law. This law 
was passed by Congress on the 22d of December, 
180T. 

This was the last important act of Mr. Jefferson's 
political life. His administration was now drawing 
to a close, after forty years of public service, and 
twenty of party turmoil. He had now attained the 
age of sixty-five, and if the enjoyment of power had 
not produced satiety, the charms of retirement must 
at least have promised the delight of novelty. His 
annual message to Congress this year, 1808, spoke 
of this event in a strain of unaffected modesty, dig- 
nified feeling, and patriotic eloquence, every way 
creditable to his head and heart. " Availing my- 
self of this, the last occasion which will occur of 
addressing the two houses of the legislature at their 
meeting, I cannot omit the expression of my sincere 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 287 

gratitude for the repeated proofs of coniidence mani- 
fested to me by themselves and their predecessors, 
since my call to the administration, and the many 
indulgences experienced at their hands. The same 
grateful acknowledgments are due to my fellow- 
ditizens generally, whose support has been my great 
encouragement under all embarrassments. In the 
transaction of their businesss I cannot have escaped 
error — it is incident to our imperfect nature. But 
I may say with truth my errors have been of the 
understanding, not of intention, and that the ad- 
vancement of their rights and interests has been the 
constant motive for every measure. On these con- 
siderations I solicit their indulgence. Looking for- 
ward with anxiety to their future destinies, I trust, 
that in their steady character, unshaken by difficul- 
ties, in their love of liberty, obedience to law, and 
support of public authorities, I see a sure guarantee 
of the permanence of our republic ; and retiring 
from the charge of their affairs, I carry with me the 
consolation of a firm persuasion, that Heaven has in 
store for our beloved country, long ages to come of 
prosperity and happiness." 

It was on the 7th of November that Mr. Jefferson 
sent in to Congress his last annual address, contain- 
ing many items of interest connected with the state 
of the country, and the past measures of his admi- 



288 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

nistration. Among other statements he informs 
them that the yearly receipts of the Treasury were 
then eighteen millions of dollars ; that two millions 
and a half of the national debt had been discharged ; 
and that nearly fourteen millions remained as sur- 
plus in the treasury. During the six years preced- 
ing, thirty millions of the national debt had been 
liquidated. 

At the general election in October, James Madi- 
son had been chosen as the successor of Mr. Jeffer- 
son. At the expiration of the term of the latter, he 
received addresses of esteem and respect from the 
legislatures of Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Marj'land, Georgia, New York and Virginia. The 
address of the legislature of Virginia proceeded 
from the polished pen of William Wirt; and was 
couched in the following language 

" Sir : The General Assembly of your native 
State cannot close their session without acknowl- 
edging your services in the office which you are 
just about to lay down, and bidding you a respect- 
ful and affectionate farewell. 

" We have to thank you for the model of an 
administration conducted on the purest principles 
of republicanism ; for pomp and state laid aside ; 
patronage discarded; internal taxes abolished; a 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 289 

Lost of superfluous oflicers disbanded ; the monar- 
cliic maxim that ' a national debt is a national 
blessing,' renounced, and more than thirty-three 
millions of our debt discharged; the native right to 
near one hundred millions of acres of our national 
domain extinguished ; and without the guilt or 
calamities of conquest, a vast and fertile region 
added to our country, far more extensive than her 
original possessions, bringing along with it the 
Mississippi and the port of Orleans, the trade of 
the "West to the Pacific Ocean, and in the intrinsic 
value of the land itself, a source of permanent and 
almost inexhaustible revenue. These are points in 
your administration which the historian will not 
fail to seize, to expand, and to teach posterity to 
dwell upon with delight. ISTor will he forget our 
peace with the civilized world, preserved through a 
season of uncommon difficulty and trial ; the good- 
will cultivated with the unfortunate aborigines of 
our country, and the civilization humanely extended 
among them ; the lesson taught the inhabitants of 
the coast of Barbary, that we have the means of 
chastising their piratical encroachments, and awing 
them into justice; and that theme, which, above all 
others, the historic genius will hang upon with 
rapture, the liberty of speech and the press pre- 
25 



290 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

served inviolate, without which genius and science 
are given to man in vain. 

" In the principles on which you have adminis- 
tered the government, we see only the continuation 
and the maturity of the same virtues and abilities 
which drew upon you in your youth the resentment 
of Dunmore. From the first brilliant and happy 
moment of your resistance to foreign tyranny until 
the present day, we mark with pleasure and with 
gratitude the same uniform and consistent charac- 
ter — the same warm and devoted attachment to 
liberty and the republic, the same Roman love of 
your country, her rights, her peace, her honor, her 
prosperity. 

" How blessed will be the retirement into which 
you are about to go ! How deservedly blessed will 
it be ! For you carry with you the richest of all 
rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the 
service of your country, and proofs the most deci- 
sive of the love, the gratitude, the veneration of 
your countrymen. 

" That your retirement may be as happy as your 
life has been virtuous and useful ; that our youth 
may see, in the blissful close of your days, an addi- 
tional inducement to form themselves on your 
model, is the devout and earnest prayer of your 
fellow-citizens who compose the General Assembly 
of Virginia." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 291 

Mr. Jefferson's second term of office as President 
of the United States, terminated on March 4th, 
1809. He remained to witness the inauguration of 
his successor, and sat on his right hand during the 
delivery of his address. Several days afterward he 
left Washington, and journeyed hy slow and easjr 
stages to Monticello, where he arrived in the mid- 
dle of March. Thus after forty years of political 
turmoil, agitation and labor, this great statesman 
and politician retired at last to the quiet and seclu- 
sion of private life. His feelings on this occasion 
may be inferred from the following letter to M. Du- 
pont do ^NTemours, in Paris : 

"Within a few days I retire to my family, my 
books and farms ; and having gained the harbor 
myself, I shall look on my friends still buffeting the 
Btorm, with anxiety, indeed, but not with envy. 
Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel 
such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of 
power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pur- 
suits of science, by rendering them my supremo 
delight. But the enormities of the times in which 
I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resist- 
ing them, and to commit myself on the boisterous 
ocean of political passions. I thank God for the 
opportunity of retiring from them without censure, 



292 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

and carrying with me the most consoling proofs of 
public approbation." 

He gives the following account of his journey: — 

" I had a very fatiguing journey, having found 
the roads excessively bad, although I have seen 
them worse. The last three days I found it better 
to be on horseback, and traveled eight hours through 
as disagreeable a snow-storm as I was ever in. 
Feeling no inconvenience from the expedition but 
fatigue, I have more confidence in my vis vitce than 
I had before entertained. The spring is remarkably 
backward." 

Having been welcomed home by the citizens of 
his county, he addressed them in the following 
strain of attachment and affection : — 

" Returning to the scenes of my birth and early 
life, to the society of those with whom I was raised, 
and who have been ever dear to me, I receive, fel- 
low-citizens and neighbors, with inexpressible plea- 
sure, the cordial welcome you are so good as to give 
me. Long absent on duties which the history of a 
wonderful era made incumbent on those called to 
them, the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle and splen- 
dor of office, have drawn but deeper sighs for the 
tranquil and irresponsible occupations of private 
life, for the enjoyment of an aflectionate intercourse 
with you, my neighbors and friends ; and the en- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 293 

dearments of family love, which nature has given 
us all, as the sweetener of every hour. For these I 
gladly lay down the distressing burden of power, 
and seek, with my fellow-citizens, repose and safety 
under the watchful cares, the labors and per[)lexitics 
of younger and abler minds. The anxieties you 
express to administer to my happiness, do, of them- 
selves, confer that happiness; and the measure will 
be complete, if my endeavors to fulfill my duties in 
the several public stations to which I have been 
called, have obtained for me the approbation of my 
country. The part which I have acted on the 
theatre of public life, has been before them ; and to 
their sentence I submit it: but the testimony of my 
native county, of the individuals who have known 
me in private life, to my conduct in its various 
duties and relations, is the more grateful, as pro- 
ceeding from eye-witnesses and observers — from 
triers of the vicinage. Of you, then, my neighbors, 
I may ask in the face of the world, 'Whose ox have 
I taken, or whom have I defrauded ? "Whom have 
I oppressed, or of whose hand have I received a 
bribe to blind mine eyes therewith ?' On your ver- 
dict I rest with conscious security. Your wishes 
for my happ»iness are received with just sensibility, 
and I offer sincere prayers for your own welfare and 

prosperity." 
25* 



294 THE LIFE AND TIMES 



CHAPTER XVI. 

MR. Jefferson's habits of life in his retirf-ment — incidents of his 

RESIDENCE AT MONTICELLO — THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION OF INDE- 
PENDENCE — MR. Jefferson's peccniary difficulties — the plan of a 

LOTTERY — PUBLIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO HIS RELIEF — HIS LAST SICKNESS — 
HIS DEATH — ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER — HIS RELIGIOUS OPINIONS — 
DEFECTS OF HIS CHARACTER — HIS WANT OF SINCERITY AN* TRUTHFUL- 
NESS HIS FALSE CHARGES AGAINST MR. HAMILTON EVIDENCE OF THEIR 

FALSEHOOD — HIS SECRET OPPOSITION TO THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION- 
NOVEL AND ABSURD GROUNDS OF HIS OPPOSITION — CHIEF DIFFERENCE 
BETWEEN JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON — CONCLUSION. 

Mr. Jefferson was sixty-six years of age when he 
retired, for the last time, from public life to the 
quietude and seclusion of his estate at Monticello. 
His property consisted of nearly seven thousand acres 
of land, and was worked by a hundred and thirteen 
slaves. He also possessed four thousand acres at 
Poplar Forest, on which there were eighty-five 
slaves. But although he was a large landed proprie- 
tor, his estates were not very productive ; and the 
profuse hospitality which during many years he exer- 
cised at Monticello, very perceptibly diminished his 
resources from year to year. He had also a passion 
for building ; and being deprived of the income 
which for eight years he had been in the habit of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 295 

receiving as President, he gradually became involved 
in pecuniary difficulties. He thus describes his avo- 
cations in a letter of this date, to his illustrious 
friend Koskiusco : 

"In the bosom of my family, and surrounded by 
my books, I enjoy a repose to which I have been 
long a stranger. My mornings are devoted to cor- 
respondence. From breakfast to dinner I am in my 
shops, my garden, or on horseback among my farms ; 
from dinner to dark I give to society and recreation 
with my neighbors and friends; and from candle 
light to early bedtime I read. My health is perfect, 
and my strength considerably reinforced by the ac- 
tivity of the course I pursue ; perhaps it is as great 
as usually falls to the lot of near sixty-seven years of 
age. I talk of plows and harrows, seeding and 
harvesting, with my neighbors, and of politics, too, 
if they choose, with as little reserve as the rest of 
my fellow-citizens, and feel at length the blessing of 
being free to say and do what I please, without being 
responsible for it to any mortal. A part of my 
occupation, and by no means the least pleasing, is 
the direction of the studies of such young men as 
ask it. They place themselves in the neighboring 
village, have the use of my library and coiinsel, and 
make a part of my society. In advising the course 
of their reading, I endeavor to keep their attention 



296 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom 
and happiness of man." He concludes by adverting 
to his pecuniary difficulties, and says he has to pass 
such a length of time in a thraldom of mind never 
before known to him. "But for this," he says, " his 
happiness would have been perfect." Among those 
who thus profited by his counsels in the way spoken 
of, were Mr. Rives, the late Minister to France, and 
Francis "W". Gilmer, late Professor of Law in the 
University of Virginia. 

His workshops were those of carpenters, black- 
smiths,wheel Wrights and nailsmiths. Mr. Jefierson 
was fond of exercising himself in mechanical em- 
ployments. He had a small apartment adjoining his 
bed-room, in which there was a complete assortment 
of tools, in the use of which he had acquired much 
practical skill, and which at once enabled him to 
take exercise within doors, to find an agreeable re- 
laxation for his mind, to repair any of his various in- 
struments in physical science, and to execute any 
little scheme of the moment in the way of furniture or 
experiment. He had many very respectable workmen 
among his slaves, whose expertness had been greatly 
improved, both by his instructions and the diversified 
occupation which he afi:brded them. The carriage 
in which he ordinarily rode, his garden-seats, even 
some of his household furniture, were the joint work 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 297 

of himself aud his slaves. Ilis favorite exercise, 
however, was riding on horseback, and he never 
was unprovided with handsome horses. It was the 
only thing in wdiich he was lavish of money for his 
exclusive gratification ; and the four which he 
purchased for his carriage when he was elected 
President, cost him two thousand dollars. 

Thus year after year of the retirement of this 
celebrated man glide'd quietly away ; yet occasion- 
ally diversified by pleasing and novel incidents. 
One of these was the correspondence which took 
place between Mr. Jefierson and Mr. John Adams. 
Another was the epistolary intercourse which 
occurred between him and the illustrious Madame 
de Stael. His correspondence with Mr. Adams 
elicited new and strange information in reference to 
the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, from 
which it has been charged that Mr. Jefferson de- 
rived the chief ideas of his own draft of the Ameri- 
can Declaration. This subject has been fiercely 
contested on both sides. The coincidences of ex- 
pression between these two documents are so 
remarkable as to justify the full conviction, that the 
one was in a great measure derived from the other. 
That the reader may judge for himself on this 
subject, we here insert this rare and interesting 



298 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

document, as well as Mr.. Adams' letter to Mr. 
Jefferson on the subject : 

" Quincy, 22d of June, 1819. 

" Dear Sir : May I enclose you one of the great- 
est curiosities, and one of the deepest mysteries that 
ever occurred to me ; it is in the Essex Register of 
June the 5th, 1819. It is entitled, from the Raleigh 
Register, ' Declaration of Independence.' How is it 
possible that this paper should have been concealed 
from me to this day ! Had it been communicated 
to me in the time of it, I know, if you do not know, 
that it would have been printed in every whig 
newspaper upon the continent. You know that if I 
had possessed it, I would have made the Hall of 
Congress echo and re-echo with it fifteen months 
before your Declaration of Independence. What a 
poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous 
mass is Tom Paine's Common Sense in comparison 
with this paper. Had I known it, I would have 
commented upon it from the day you entered Con- 
gress till the fourth of July, 1776. 

"The genuine sense of America at that moment 
was never so well expressed before or since. Richard 
Caswell, William Hooper, and Joseph Hughes, the 
then representatives of North Carolina in Congress, 
you know as well as I ; and you know that the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 299 

unanimity of the States finally depended on the 
vote of Joseph Hewes, and was finally determined 
by him ; and yet history is to ascribe the American 
Revolution to Thomas Paine. Sat verbuni sapienti. 
" I am, dear sir, your invariable friend," &c. 

The Mecklenburg Declaration is as follows : 

" May 20th, 1775. That whoever directly or in- 
directly abets, or in any ■way, form, or manner, 
countenances the unchartered and dangerous inva- 
sion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an 
enemy to this country, to America, and to the inhe- 
rent and undeniable rights of man. 

" That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, 
do hereby dissolve the political hands which have con- 
nected us with the mother conntry^ and hereby absolve 
ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown, and 
abjure all political connection, contact or association 
with that nation, who have wantonly trampled on 
our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the 
blood of American patriots at Lexington. 

" That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and 
independent people ; are, and of right ought to be, a 
sovereign and self-governing association, under the 
control of no power, other than that of our God, 
and the general government of Congress ; to the 
maintenance of which independence, we solemnly 



300 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

pledge to each other, our mutual co-operation, our 
lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor. 

" That as we acknowledge the existence and con- 
trol of no law nor legal officer, civil or military, 
within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt 
as a rule of life, all, each, and every of our former 
laws ; wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great 
Britain never can be considered as holdino: rio-hts, 
privileges, immunities, or authority therein. 

" That it is further decreed, that all, each, and 
every military officer in this county, is hereby rein- 
stated in his former command and authority, he 
acting conformably to the regulations. And that 
every member present of this delegation shall hence- 
forth be a civil officer, viz. a justice of the peace, in 
the character of a committee man, to issue process, 
hear, and determine all matters of controversy, 
according to said adopted laws ; and to preserve 
peace, union, and harmony in said county, and to 
use every exertion to spread the love of country and 
fire of freedom throughout America, until a more 
general and organized government be established in 
this province," 

Another agreeable incident connected with these 
retired and unobtrusive years of Mr. Jeflerson's life, 
was the visit which he received from General La 
Fayette, when making his tour through the United 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 301 

States. There was the utmost cordiality between 
them while together ; 3"et Mr. Jefferson, with his 
prevalent duplicity, speaks in a letter to Mr. Madison 
of La Fayette's " canine thirst for popularity/." IIow 
much real esteem and regard Mr. Jefferson could 
have entertained for a person of whom he speaks in 
such terms, it is not difficult to determine. 

In 1824 Mr. Jefferson began to see his wishes and 
labors in reference to the University of Virginia 
approaching a successful termination. The build- 
ings were very near their completion, and an able 
corps of professors had been procured. Mr. Jeffer- 
son was chosen President of the Board of Trustees, 
and he aided the new Institution with generous gifts 
of books, money, services and influence. He framed 
the laws for the government of the University. 
These laws he made entirely too democratic ; and 
the consequence was that the students soon proved 
themselves utterly unfit for self-government, and 
their insubordination nearly brought the institution 
to the verge of ruin. Severe measures became 
necessary, and the ringleaders were expelled by the 
faculty, among whom was one of Mr. Jefferson's 
own nephews. The necessary amendments to the 
constitution and laws of the University were made; 
and subsequently greater rigor secured greater order 
and propriety of behavior. 
20 



302 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

The last event in the life of Mr. Jefferson which 
attracted public attention was one of a painful and 
distressing nature. Together with the failure of his 
health, and his sufferings from a chronic disease of 
the bladder, his pecuniary difficulties had been in- 
creasing for many years. His vast tracts of land 
had long been expensive and comparatively unprofit- 
able. His debts had largely increased. He had 
-been relieved, immediately after his retirement from 
the Presidency, by a loan of ten thousand dollars 
secured on his property. He realized in his expe- 
rience the evils which attended the employment of 
overseers and slaves. The proceeds of his estates 
rarely covered the expenses. He was also so im- 
prudent and unfortunate as to endorse for his friend, 
Governor Nicholas, to the amount of twenty thou- 
sand dollars ; and for this sum, by the insolvency of 
Mr. Nicholas, he became responsible. 

In order to relieve his pressing pecuniary difficul- 
ties, a plan was devised by his friends to obtain an 
act of the Legislature of Virginia, authorizing the 
disposal of a part of his property by lottery. He 
himself prepared a petition to that effect, to be pre- 
sented to that bod3^ The legislature acquiesced, 
and passed the act ; but the enemies of Mr. Jefferson 
embraced the opportunity to utter the most severe 
and sarcastic strictures upon him. He thus writes 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 303 

to Mr, Madison in reference to the subject in Feb- 
ruary, 1826. 

" You will have seen in the newspapers some 
proceedings in the legislature, which have cost me 
much mortification. My own debts had become 
considerable, but not beyond the effect of some lop- 
ping off of property, which would have been little 
felt, when our friend Nicholas gave me the coup de 
grace. Ever since that, I have been paying twelve 
hundred dollars a year interest on his debt, which, 
with my own, was absorbing so much of my annual 
income, as that the maintenance of my family was 
making deep and rapid inroads on my capital, and 
had already done it. Still, sales at a fair price, 
would leave me competently provided. Had crops 
and prices, for several years, been such as to main- 
tain a steady competition of substantial bidders at 
market, all would have been safe. But the long 
succession of years of stunted crops, of reduced 
prices, the general prostration of the farming busi- 
ness, under levies for the support of manufacturers, 
&c,, with the calamitous fluctuations of value in our 
paper medium, have kept agriculture in a state of 
abject depression, which has peopled the western 
States by silently breaking up those on the Atlantic, 
and glutted the land market, while it drew off its 
bidders. In such a state of things, property has 
lost its character of being a resource for debts. 



304 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

High land in Bedford, whieli, in the da3-s of our 
plethory, sold readily for from fifty to one hundred 
dollars the acre, (and such sales were many then,) 
would not now sell for more than from ten to 
twenty dollars, or one quarter or one fifth of its 
former price. Refl.ecting on these things, the prac- 
tice occurred to me of selling, on fair valuation, and 
by way of lottery, often resorted to before the Revo- 
lution, to efiect large sales, and still in constant 
usage in every State, for individual as well as cor- 
poration purposes. If it is permitted in my case, 
my lands here alone, with the mills, &c., will pay 
every thing, and leave me Monticello and a farm 
free. If refused, I must sell every thing here, per- 
haps considerably in Bedford, move thither with 
my family, where I have not even a log-hut to put 
my head into, and whether ground for burial will 
depend on the depredations which, under the form of 
sales, shall have been committed on my property. 
The question then with me was, ultrum liorumf 

In conclusion he makes the following pathetic 
appeal : 

" But why afflict you with these details? Indeed, 
I cannot tell, unless pains are lessened by commu- 
nication with a friend. The friendship which has 
subsisted between us, now half a century, and the 
harmony of our political principles and pursuits, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 305 

have been sources of constant happiness to me 
through that long period. And if I remove beyond 
the reach of attention to the university, or beyond 
the bourne of life itself, as I soon must, it is a 
comfort to leave that institution under your care, 
and an assurance that it will not be wanting. It 
has also been a great solace to me, to believe that 
you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the 
course we have pursued for preserving to them, in 
all their purity, the blessings of self-government, 
which we had assisted, too, in acquiring for them. 
If ever the earth has beheld a system of administra- 
tion conducted with a single and steadfast eye to 
the general interest and happiness of those com- 
mitted to it, one which, protected by truth, can 
never know reproach, it is that to which our lives 
have been devoted. To myself you have been a 
pillar of support through life. Take care of me 
when dead, and be assured that I shall leave with 
you my last affections." 

Mr. Jefferson's Memorial to the Legislature at- 
tracted public attention to his difficulties, and va- 
rious plans were suggested for his relief. It was 
thought desirable by his friends that his property 
and his mansion, to which he had given celebrity, 
should remain in his possession ; and to secure this 
end it was proposed to suspend the proceedings in 
26* 



806 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

relation to the lottery, and commence a subscription 
throughout the United States, for the purpose of 
collecting a hundred thousand dollars — the sum 
which his exigencies demanded. Nearly nine 
thousand were raised in New York, five thousand 
in Philadelphia, three thousand in Baltimore, and 
smaller sums elsewhere throughout the country. 
The whole amounted to eighteen thousand dollars ; 
but the progress of the contributions was stopped 
by Mr. Jefferson's last illness and death. 

During the month of June, 1826, he suffered se- 
verely from an attack of dysentery, which became 
worse from day to day. On the first of July he was 
confined to his bed. He was attended by Dr. Dun- 
glison, who felt convinced that the attack would 
prove fatal. During his last illness, a visitor was 
announced. Mr. Jefferson supposed that it was a 
clergyman of Charlottesville, Mr. Hatch, whose 
name had been mentioned. Under this impression, 
Mr. Jefferson said : " Is that Mr. Hatch ? He is a 
very good man, and I am glad to see him as a 
neighbor, but not as a clergyman." In truth, Mr. 
Jefferson declined all religious sympathy during his 
last hours, having long previously made up his 
mind in reference to those subjects, and not desiring 
his views in the midst of feebleness and suffering to 
be assailed and disturbed. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 307 

On the 3d of July, lie continued to sink. Near 
the middle of the night he asked the hour ; and on 
being told that it was near one o'clock, he expressed 
his joy. The spirit of the aged statesman yearned to 
survive, to see once more the anniversary of that glo- 
rious day, in whose immortal incidents, just half a 
century before, he himself had played so important 
and so honorable apart. At last about two o'clock on 
the morning of the fourth of July, while millions of 
freemen were exulting in the dawn of that welcome 
anniversary, the spirit of Thomas Jefferson quietly 
and calmly burst the bands which bound it to its 
earthly tenement, and sped away to other spheres. 
On the same day one of his most illustrious asso- 
ciates, rivals, and friends, paid the same great debt 
to nature, in a distant commonwealth. John Adams 
and Thomas Jefferson, both signers of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and both Ex-Presidents of the 
United States, expired on the 4th of July, 1826. 
Mr. Jefferson was eighty-three years of age. 

Mr. Jefferson's funeral was simple and unostenta- 
tious. It took place on the afternoon of the day 
after his death. His remains were deposited in a 
small grave-yard on the side of the mountain at 
Monticello. A granite obelisk, eight feet high, 
marks the last resting-place of this celebrated man ; 
and on it are inscribed the following words, which 



808 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

were found, in his owe hand-writing, among hia 
papers, and designated by himself as designed for 
Jais tomb : 

HERE LIES BURIED 

THOMAS JEFFERSOK. 

AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 

OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, 

AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 

The character and merits of Mr. Jefferson have 
long been the subject of violent controversy. By 
his admirers he has been elevated to the highest 
eminence in human virtue, while his opponents 
have gone to an equally absurd extreme. The truth 
is, that his character possessed many great merits 
and some great defects. He was, unquestionably, a 
man of a large, powerful, and capacious intellect. 
His views on every subject were marked by depth, 
sagacity, and originality. As a lawyer he was 
learned and acute. As a writer he was clear, 
strong, and convincing. He possessed little imagi- 
nation, and little love or appreciation of the beauti- 
ful. He was very adroit in the management of men 
and parties. This is evinced by the success with 
which he attained all the various offices in the gift 
of the people. He began with the lowest, and 
ascended to the highest. First, he was a Justice of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 309 

the Peace, then a Member of the Legislature, then 
Speaker of the House, then Governor of the State, 
then member of the Contuiental Congress, then 
Minister to France, then Secretary of State, then 
Vice-President, then President ; and was then even 
re-elected, in spite of his own frequent protestations 
against the unrepublican tendency of long tenures 
of office. Mr. Jefferson was in truth the prince of 
A-merican politicians, both in respect to the skill with 
which he managed party politics and party forces, 
and with respect to the success which attended his 
ambitious labors. 

His services to his country, as long as they apper- 
tained to the establishment of her liberties and the 
formation of her government, were of the first order. 
As the author of the Declaration of Independence 
his name will live forever, and be associated with 
the brightest and noblest page of American history. 
His religious opinions and his views of Christianity 
will be best learned from his own language. Says 
he: 

"I have to thank you for your pamphlets on the 
subjects of Unitarianism, and to express my gratifi- 
cation with your efforts for the revival of primitive 
Christianity in your quarter. No historical fact is 
better established than that the doctrine of one 
God, pure and uncompouuded, was that of the early 



310 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

ages of Christianity ; and was among the efficacious 
doctrines which gave it triumph over the Polytheism 
of the ancients, sickened with the absurdities of their 
own theology. Nor was the unity of the Supreme 
Being ousted from the Christian creed by the force 
of reason, but by the sword of civil government, 
wielded at the will of the fanatic Athanasius. The 
hocus-pocus phantasm of a God, like another Cer- 
berus, with one body and three heads, had its birth 
and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands 
of martyrs. And a strong proof of the solidity of 
the primitive faith, is its restoration, as soon as a 
nation arises which vindicates to itself the freedom 
of religious opinion, and its external divorce from 
the civil authority. The pure and simple unity of 
the Creator of the universe is now all but ascendant 
in the Eastern States ; it is dawning in the West, 
and advancing toward the South ; and I confidently 
expect that the present generation will see Unita- 
rianism become the general religion of the United 
States. The Eastern presses are giving us many 
excellent pieces on the subject ; and Priestley's 
learned writings on it are, or should be, in every hand. 
In fact, the Athanasian paradox that one is three, 
and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the 
human mind, that no candid man can say he has 
any idea of it ; and how can he believe what presents 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 811 

no idea ? He who thinks he does, only deceives 
himself. He proves, also, that man once surrender- 
ing his reason, has no remaining guard against ab- 
surdities the most monstrous, and, like a ship 
without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With 
such persons, gullability, which they call faith, takes 
the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind 
becomes a wreck." In another place he says : — 
" The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to 
the happiness of man. 

" 1. That there is one only God, and he all perfect. 

" 2. That there is a future state of rewards and 
punishments. 

" 3. That to love God with all thy heart, and 
thy neighbor as thyself, is the sum of religion. 
These are the great points on which he endeavored 
to reform the religion of the Jews." He then com- 
pares these with the doctrines of Calvin, and adds : 
"Now, which of these is the true and charitable 
Christian ? He who believes and acts on the simple 
doctrines of Jesus, or the impious dogmatists, as 
Athanasius and Calvin ? Verily, I say these are the 
false shepherds foretold us to enter not by the door 
into the sheepfold, but to climb up some other way. 
They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, 
teaching a counter religion made up of the deleria 
of crazy imaginations, as foreign from Christianity 



812 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies have 
driven thinking men into infideUty, who have too 
hastily rejected the supposed author himself, with 
the horrors so falsely imputed him. Had the 
doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as 
they came from his lips, the whole civilized world 
would now have been Christians. I rejoice that 
in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, 
which has surrendered its creed and conscience to 
neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of, 
one only God is reviving, and I trust that there is 
not a young man now living in the United States 
who will not die a Unitarian." 

The chief defect in the character of Mr. Jefferson, 
was his want of sincerity and truthfulness. This 
charge may be substantiated by many unanswerable 
proofs. Thus for instance he proclaimed himself 
the advocate of popular rights ; he defended the 
dignity, purity, and honesty of the masses; and 
pretended that they were more worthy of confidence, 
and were safer depositaries of power, than the 
higher and more exclusive ranks. Yet in spite of 
these declarations, Mr. Jefferson was in reality the 
most aristocratic of men. In his heart he despised 
the multitude ; he placed no confidence in their judg- 
ment ; and held both them and their character in 
contempt. As an evidence of this we may adduce 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 313 

the following extract from a letter addressed to one 
of his most intimate friends : 

" The Political Progress is a work of value, and 
of a singular complexion. The author's eye seems 
to be a natural achromatic, divesting every object 
of the glare of color. The former work of the same 
title possessed the same kind of merit. They disgust 
one, indeed, by opening to his view the ulcerated 
state of the human mind. But to cure an ulcer, 
you must go to the bottom of it, which no author 
does more radically than this. The reflections into 
which it leads us are not very flattering to the 
human species. In the whole animal kingdom, I 
recollect no family but man, steadily and systemati- 
cally employed in the destruction of itself. Nor 
does what is called civilization produce any other 
eflfect than to teach him to pursue the principle of 
the helium omnium in omnia, on a greater scale, and, 
instead of the little contests between tribe and tribe, 
to comprehend all the quarters of the earth in the 
same work of destruction. If to this we add, that 
as to other animals, the lions and tigers are mere 
Iambs compared with man as a destroyer, we must 
conclude that Nature has been able to find in man 
alone a sufficient barrier against the too great mul- 
tiplication of other animals, and of man himself, an 
equilibrating power against the fecundity of genera- 
27 



314 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

tion. While in making these observations, my 
situation points my attention to the welfare of man 
in the physical world, yours may perhaps present 
him as equally warring in the moral one." 

The utter inconsistency of these sentiments with 
those more publicly professed by the great apostle 
of popular infallibility, justice, and humanity, will 
clearly appear to every impartial reader. 

But it was when the personal feelings of Mr. 
Jefferson were enlisted against any of his associates 
and rivals, that his statements in reference to them, 
their character and measures were the most unfair 
and untrue. There are many instances of these 
mistatements in existence, which clearly prove that, 
from the 'nature of the case, he must have been 
fully aware of the falsity of his assertions. Perhaps 
the most remarkable examples of this description 
are to be found in his declarations against the man 
whom of all others he most sincerely hated, and 
whom he most bitterly reviled. This was Alexander 
Hamilton, the illustrious and powerful head of the 
Federal party. 

Thus Mr. Jefferson asserted in the most distinct 
and authoritative manner, without adducing any proof 
whatever of the truth of the charge, that Hamilton 
considered a public debt as a public blessing ; and 
in a letter to Gen. Washington, dated 9th Septem- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 315 

ber, 1792, (""Writings of Washington, " by Sparks, 
Vol. X., p. 17, Appendix,) lie says : " My whole 
correspondence while in France, and every word, and 
letter, and act on the subject since my return, prove 
that no man is more ardently intent to see the public 
debt soon and sacredly paid off than I am. This 
exactly marks the difference between Colonel Ham- 
ilton's views and mine, that I wish the debt paid 
off to-morrow ; he wishes it never to he paid, hut al- 
ways to he a thing wherewith to corrupt and manage 
the legislature.'' 

Here is a distinct and positive charge of the most 
serious character ; and it is to be regretted that such 
is the propensity of mankind to believe injurious 
imputations without asking for their proof, that it 
is very generally believed and very frequently 
alleged, even until this day. The evidence that this 
charge was wholly unfounded, and that Mr. Jeffer- 
son knew it to be so when he made it, is as follows : 
Mr. Hamilton, in his "Report on Public Credit," 
dated January 9, 1790, (Vol. 3, "Hamilton's Works," 
p. 40,) proposes that " reserving out of the residue 
of those duties, &c., the surplus, together with the 
product of other duties, be applied to the payment 
of the interest on the new loan by an appropriation 
co-extensive with the duration of the debt." On 
page 41 he says : " Persuaded as the Secretary is, 



S16 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

that the proper funding of the present debt will 
render it a public blessing, yet he is so far from 
acceding to the position in the latitude in which it 
is sometimes laid down, that ' public debts are 
public blessings' — a position inviting to prodigality, 
and liable to dangerous abuse — that he ardently 
wishes to see it incorporared as a fundamental 
maxim in the system of public credit of the United 
States, that the creation of debt should always be 
accompanied with the means of its extinguishment. 
This he regards as the true secret of rendering 
public credit immortal." lie then proceeds to pro- 
pose that certain revenues "shall be appropriated to 
continue so vested until the whole debt shall be 
discharged.' 

This Report, which w^as published and commented 
upon throughout the United States, must have been 
read by Mr. JeiFerson ; and as it was long anterior to 
the date of the letter referred to, it may be safely 
asserted that he Jinew such to be the principle of the 
measures of financial administration constantly 
recommended by Hamilton. 

In further proof of the falsehood of this charge 
see " Hamilton's Report on Estimates," dated August 
5, 1790. It w^ill be found there that he urges that 
a surplus in the treasury of one million should be 
applied to the payment of the public debts. In his 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 317 

Report on Manufactures, dated December 5, 1791, 
he says : " And as the vicissitudes of nations beget a 
perpetual tendency to the accumulation of debt, 
there ought to be, in every government, a perpetual, 
anxious, and unceasing effort to reduce that which 
at any time exists as fast as practicable, consistently 
with integrity and good faith." This most urgent 
admonition was published long before the date of 
Mr. Jefferson's letter.* 

Another evidence of the insincerity of Mr. Jeffer- 
son was the fact that, while he pretended to approve 
of the Federal Constitution, he was in reality 
opposed to it. Thus he writes in a letter to John 
Adams, November 18, 1787 ; " How do you like our 
new Constitution ? I confess there are things in it, 
which stagger all my dispositions to subscribe to 
what such an assembly had proposed. * * * 
Indeed I think all the good in this new Constitu- 
tion might have been couched in three or four new 
articles to be added to the good, old and venerable 
fabric, which should have been preserved, even as a 
religious relic.' 



* See Hamilton's « Report on the public debt," dated November 
80, 17G2, pp. 338, 339 ; and at p. 34G, referring to the proceeds 
of the public debt, Hamilton says : " Whenever they can be brought 
into public use, their action will be important aid, materially accele- 
rating the ultimate redemption of the entire debt." 
27* 



318 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

And again he saya to A. Donald, February Tth, 
1788 : "I wish with all my soul that the nine first 
conventions may accept the Constitution, because 
this will secure to us the good it contains, which I 
think great and important. But I equally wish that 
the four latest conventions, whichever they be, may 
refuse to execute it, till a Declaration of Rights be 
annexed." The reason of this wish was because the 
first clause of Article 7th of the Constitution pro- 
vided that " the ratification of the conventions of 
nine States shall be sufiicient for the establishment 
of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the 
same." 

The whole number was thirteen. Jefferson wished 
that nine should ratify, and that five should refuse. 
This would have included New York as refusing ; 
and thus he proposed to postpone the Union, and run 
the risk of establishing separate confederacies ! 

Elsewhere in his private correspondence, Mr. 
Jefferson may be said to have objected to the Fede- 
ral Constitution on another ground, and one in the 
highest degree novel and singular. It was on the 
general principle asserted in a letter to James 
Madison, dated September 6, 1789, at Paris. " The 
question whether one generation of men has a right 
to bind another, seems never to have been started 
either on this side or our side of the water. Yet it 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 319 

is a question of sucli consequence as not only to 
merit discussion, but place also among the funda- 
mental principles of every government. The course 
of reflection in which we are immersed here, on the 
elementary principles of society, has presented this 
question to my. mind, and that no such obligation 
can be transmitted, I think very capable of proof " 

Mr. Jefferson arrives at this conclusion : " That 
neither the representatives of a nation, nor the whole 
nation itself assembled, can validly engage debts 
beyond what they may pay in their own time ; that 
is to say within thirty-four years from the date of 
the engagement." 

He concludes his course of reasoning thus : " That 
no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even 
a perpetual law." Consequently all constitutions 
must be adopted or renewed every thirty-five years ; 
and if not, it follows that the society goes into a 
state of anarchy and dissolution. These are the 
sober and deliberately expressed opinions of this 
wise and practical statesman ! 

Additional proofs of the falsity of many of Mr. 
Jefferson's statements, in reference to his political 
and personal enemies, may be found in a work 
published in 1832, by Henry Lee of Virginia, in 
which that writer clearly exposes the error of many 
of Mr. Jefferson's declarations in reference to Gen. 



320 THE LIFE AND TIMES 

Henry Lee, of the Revolution, as contained in his 
published Memoirs, his Anas, and his correspond- 
ence. For the remarkable and unanswerable 
evidences, contained in that work, of the unfounded 
and calumnious assertions of Mr. Jefferson on many- 
subjects, we refer the reader to its pages.* 

Yet nothing human is perfect; and no incon- 
siderable excuse may be found for this error of Mr. 
Jefferson in the fact, that he was himself fiercely 
persecuted, slandered, and misrepresented by many 
of his personal and political opponents ; and that 
his severest strictures were but retaliations on them 
of the wrongs and the injustice which he supposed 
them to have inflicted on himself "Whatever may 
be his relative merit and demerit, it is certain that, 
as long as the American confederacy shall survive 
the shocks of time, and as it grows greater and 
more powerful, the name and the services of Thomas 
Jefferson will continue to live fresh and fadeless in 
the memories and the gratitude of millions of pros- 
perous and intelligent freemen ! 

The chief difference between the political opinions 
of Jefferson and Hamilton — the great Democrat 

» See " Observations on the ■writings of Thomas Jefferson ; -with 
particular reference to the attack they contain on the Memory of 
the late General Henry Lee, by H. Lee, of Virginia. New York. 
Published by Charles de Behr. 1832." See particularly pp. 41, 45, 
51, 107, and 201. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 821 

and the great Federalist of American liistory — may 
be thus briefly stated : In establishing the form of' 
government, and in administering it, these statesmen 
were guided by principles as opposite as the poles. 
Hamilton preferred practice to theory ; that is, he 
thought it wiser to adopt those elements of the 
British government which, while they accorded 
with the spirit of true liberty, possessed the addi- 
tional advantage of the prosperous and favorable 
experience of the past in their support. Mr. Jefltcr- 
sou, on the contrary, discarded every thing which 
had appertained to European governments, and 
insisted ou carrying out a full and independent 
theory of Jiis own, which embodied his whole con- 
ception of what a free, popular, and democratic 
government should be. Mr. Hamilton wished to 
leave room for future legislation, adapted to the 
developing wants and resources of the country. Mr. 
Jefferson insisted upon realizing at once and imme- ' 
diately his ideal of a free government, whether that 
ideal proved in itself practica,ble and beneficial or 
not. Mr. Hamilton looked partly to the past for 
guidance. Mr. Jefl'erson regarded all the past as 
wrong, as perversion, as injustice and outrage upon 
the rights of man, and looked only to the future. 
Hamilton was cautious of losing all by grasping too 
much. Jefl'erson wished to realize his full rights at 



322 LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON. 

the outset, forgetful of the wise maxim, that nothing 
human is at the same time both begun and per- 
fected. Hamilton was conservative ; Jefferson was 
radical. Hamilton penned the Constitution, Jef- 
ferson interpreted it; just as Homer wrote the Iliad, 
and Aristotle afterward inferred from its matchless 
numbers the great rules and canons of poetical com- 
position. But whether Hamilton or Jefferson un- 
derstood the Constitution best, may be as readily 
determined as the question, who* was the greater 
poet, the author or the critic of the Iliad . 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. 



A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES 
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN 
GENERAL CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AS FIRST 
WRITTEN AND AFTERWARD AMENDED.* 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes neces- 
sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which 
have connected them vi^ith another, and to assume among 
the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to 
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, 
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that 
they should declare the causes which impel them to the 
separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are 
created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
(inherent and f) inalienable rights ; that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure 
these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriv- 
ing their just powers from the consent of the governed; 
that whenever any form of government becomes destructive 
of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish 
it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation 
on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, 

* The parts struck out are enclosed in brackets. The additions are 
placed in foot-notes. 

t Certain inalienable rights. 

(323) 



324 APPENDIX. 

as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and 
happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments 
long established should not be changed for light and tran- 
sient causes ; and accordingly all experience hath shown 
that mankind are more disposed to sufler while evils are 
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms 
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of 
abuses and usurpations [begun at a distinguished period 
and] pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design 
to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, 
it is their duty to throw off such government, and to pro- 
vide new guards for their future security. Such has been 
the patient sufferance of these colonies ; and such is now the 
necessity which constrains them to [expunge*] their former 
systems of government. The history of the present king 
of Great Britain is a history of [unremittingf] injuries and 
usurpations, [among which appears no solitary fact to con- 
tradict the uniform-tenor of the rest, but all have|] in direct 
object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these 
states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid 
world [for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied 
by falsehood.] 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and 
necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate 
and pressing importance, unless suspended in their opera- 
tion till his assent should be obtained ; and, when so sus- 
pended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation 
of large districts of people, unless those people would 
relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a 
right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only 

* Alter. f Repeated injuries. J All having in direct object. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 325 

He has called together legislative bodies at places nnn- 
sual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their 
public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into 
compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly [and 
continually] for opposing with manly firmness his invasions 
on the rights of the people. 

He has refused for along time, after such dissolutions, to 
cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, 
incapable of annihilation, have returned to tlie people at 
hirge for their exercise, the state remaining, in the mean 
time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without 
and convulsions within 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these 
states ; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturali- 
zation of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage 
their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new 
appropriations of lands. , 

He has [suffered*] the administration of justice [totally 
to cease in some of these statesf ] refusing his assent to 
laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made [our] judges dependent on his will alone 
for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment 
of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, [by a self- as- 
sumed power] and sent hither swarms of new officers to 
harass our people and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace stana ng armies 
[and ships of war] without the consent of our legislatures. 

He lias affected to render the military independent of, 
and superior to, the civil power. 

He has combined with others to sul)ject us to a jurisdic- 

* Obstructed. | B3' refusing his assent to laws. 

28 



326 APPENDIX. 

tion foreign to onr constitutions and unacknowledged by 
our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legis- 
lation for quartering large bodies of armed troops among 
us ; for protecting them by a mock trial from punishment 
for any murders which they should commit on the inhabit- 
ants of these states ; for cutting off our trade with all parts 
of the world ; for imposing taxes on us without our con- 
sent ; for depriving us* of the benefits of trial by jury ; for 
transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended 
offenses ; for abolishing the free system of English laws in 
a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary 
government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render 
it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the 
same absolute rule into these [states ;f ] for taking away our 
charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering 
fundamentally the forms of our governments ; for suspend- 
ing our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested 
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here [withdrawing his 
governors, and declaring us out of his allegiance and pro- 
tection. J] 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our 
towns, and destroyed the lives of' our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign 
mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and 
tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and 
perfidy § unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens taken captive on 
the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become 
the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall 
themselves by their hands. 

** In many cases. f Colonies 

J By declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. 

g Scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages and totally. 



DECLARATION OF INDErENDENCE. 327 

He has* endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our 
frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule 
of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, 
sexes, and conditions [of existence]. 

[He has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow- 
citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation 
of our property. 

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, 
violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the 
persons of a distant people who never offended him, capti- 
vating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, 
or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. 
This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is 
the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Deter- 
mined to keep open a market where men should be bought 
and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing 
every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this 
execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors 
might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting 
those very people to raise in arms among us, and to pur- 
chase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by mur- 
dering the people on whom he also obtruded them : thus 
paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of 
one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit 
against the lives of another.] 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for 
redress in the most humble terms ; our repeated addresses 
have been answered only by repeated injuries. 

A prince whose character is thus marked by every act 
which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of af peo- 
ple [who mean to be free. Future ages will scarcely believe 
that the hardiness of one man adventured, within the short 

* Escited domestic insurrections aoioiig us, aud lias f Free. 



328 APPENDIX. 

compass of twelve years only, to lay a foundation so broad 
and so undisguised for tyranny over a people fostered and 
fixed in principles of freedom.] 

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British 
brethren. We have warned them from time to time of at- 
tempts by their legislature to extend [a*] jurisdiction over 
[these our states. f] "We have reminded them of the circum- 
stances of our emigration and settlement here, [no one of 
which could warrant so strange a pretension ; that these 
were effected at the expense of our own blood and treasure, 
unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain ; 
that in constituting indeed our several forms of government, 
we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foun- 
dation for perpetual league and amity with them ; but that 
submission to their parliament was no part of our constitu- 
tion, nor ever in idea, if history may be credited : and,] 
wet appealed to their native justice and magnanimity [as 
well as to§] the ties of our common kindred to disavow 
these usurpations which [were likely to ||] interrupt our con- 
nection and correspondence. They too have been deaf to 
the voice of justice and of consanguinity, [and when occa- 
sions have been given them, by the regular course of their 
laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our 
harmony, they have, by their free election, re-established 
them in power. At this very time too, they are permitting 
their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our 
common blood, but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to in- 
vade and destroy us. These facts have given the last stab 
to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce 
forever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to 

* An unwarrantable jurisdiction. fUs. J Have, 

g And we have conjured them by the ties. 
Il Would inevitably interrupt. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 329 

forget our former love for them, and hold them as we hold 
the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We 
might have been a free and a great people together ; but a 
communication of grandeur and of freedom, it seems, is 
below their dignity. Be it so, since they will have it. The 
road to happiness and to glory is open to us too. We will 
tread it apart from them, and*J acquiesce in the necessity 
which denounces our (eternal) separation ! f 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of 
America in General Congress assembled, do in the name, 
and by the authority of the good people of these [states, 
reject and renounce all allegiance and subjection to the 
kings of Great Britain and all others who may hereafter 
claim by, through, or under them ; we utterly dissolve all 
political connection which may heretofore have subsisted 
between us and the people or parliament of Great Britain ; 
and finally we do assert and declare these colonies to be free 
and independent states,] and that as free and independent 
states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, 
contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other 
acts and things which independent states may of right do. J 



* We must therefore acquiesce. 

f And hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in 
peace friends. 

■^ We, therefore, the representatives of. the United States of America in 
General Congress assembled, appealing to the supremo Judge of the 
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name and by the 
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and de- 
clare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and 
independent states ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the 
British crown, and that all political connection between them and the 
state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as 
free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude 
peace, contract alliances, establish comme^'ce, and to do all other acts and 
things which independent states may of right do. 

28* 



330 APPENDIX. 

And for the support of this declaration, we mutually 
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred 
honor.* 



No. II. 

LETTERS OF JOHN RANDOLPH IN RELATION 
TO MR. JEFFERSON'S ELECTION TO THE 
PRESIDENCY. 

Chamber of the House of Representatives, 

Wednesday, February llth, 1801. 

Seven times we have ballotted — eight States for J. — six 

for B. — two, Maryland and Vermont, divided. Voted to 

postpone for an hour the process ; now, half-past four, 

resumed — result the same. 

The order against adjourning, made with a view to 
Mr. Nicholson, who was ill, has not operated. He left 
his sick bed — came through a snow storm — brought his 
bed, and has prevented the vote of Maryland from being 
given to Burr. Mail closing. 

Yours with perfect love and esteem, 

J. R., Jr. 



Thursday morning, February 12th. 
My Dear Sir : 

We have just taken the n neteenth ballot. The result 
baa invariably been eight States for J., six for B., two 
divided. We continue to ballot with the interval of an 
hour. The rule for making the sittings permanent seems 

* And for the support of this declaration, vrith a firm reliance on the 
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our 
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 



Randolph's letters. 331 

now to be not so agreeable to our Federal gentlemen. No 
election will, in my opinion, take place. By special per- 
mission the mail will remain open until four o'clock. I 
will not close this^ letter until three. If there be a change 
I shall notify it, if not, I shall add no more to the assurance 
of my entire affection. 

John Randolph, Jr. 



Chamber of the House of Representatives, 
Fehruary \Uh, 1801. 
After endeavoring to make the question before us depend 
upon physical construction, our opponents have begged for 
a dispensation from their own regulation, and without 
adjourning we have postponed, (like able casuists) from day 
to day, the ballotting. In half an hour we shall recom- 
mence the operation. The result is marked below. 

We have ballotted thirty-one hours. Twelve o'clock, 
Saturday noon, eight for J., six for B., two divided. 
Again at one, not yet decided. Same result. Postponed 
till Monday twelve o'clock. 

John Randolph, Jr. 



Chamber of the Representatives, 
February I'^th. 
On the thirty-sixth ballot, there appeared, this day, ten 
States for Thomas Jefferson — four (New England) for 
A. Burr, and two blank ballots, (Delaware and South Ca- 
rolina.) This was the second time that we ballotted to- 
day. 

The four Burr-ites of Maryland, put blanks into the box 
of that State. The vote was, therefore, unanimous. Mr. 
Morris, of Vermont, left his seat, and the result was, there- 
fore, Jeffersonian. Adieu, Tuesday, two o'clock, p. m. 

J. R., Jr. 
I need not add that Mr. J. was declared duly elected. 



332 APPENDIX. 

No. III. 
JEFERSON'S NOTE ON MR. 'bA YARD. 

The following vindication of Mr. Jefferson for a note in 
in his ana concerning the late Mr. Bayard of Delaware, 
was written by Mr. Madison, and was first published in the 
National Gazette of February 5th, 1831 : 

25//?. January, 1831. 

Mr. Editor : The Nationa Gazette of January 1st, con- 
tained a publication, edited since in pamphlet form, from 
two sons of the late Mr. Bayard ; its object being to vindi- 
cate the memory of their father against certain passages in 
the writings of Mr. Jeflferson. 

The filial anxiety which prompted the publication was 
natural and highly commendable. But it is to be regretted, 
that in performing that duty, they have done great injustice 
to the memory of Mr. Jefferson, by the hasty and limited 
views taken of the evidence deducible from the sources to 
which they had appealed. 

The first passage on which they found their charges is 
in the following words : 

" February 12, 1801. — Edward Livingston tells me, that 
Bayard applied, to-day or last night, to General Smith, and 
represented to him the expediency of coming over to the 
States who vote for Burr, that there was nothing in the 
way of appointment which he might not command, and 
particularly mentioned the Secretaryship of the Navy. 
Smith asked him if he was authorized to make the offer. 
He said he was authorized. Smith told this to Livingston, 



Jefferson's note on mr. bayard. 333 

and to Wilson Carey Nicholas, who confirms it to me." 
[See Mr. Jefferson's Memoirs, Yol. lY. p. 515.] 

From this statement it ajipears, that Mr. Jefferson was 
told by Mr. Livingston, that he had it from General Smith, 
that Mr. Bayard had applied to him [General Smith,] with 
au offer of a high appointment, if he would come over from 
the Jefferson party, and join that of the rival candidate for 
the presidency. It appears that this information of Mr. 
Livingston was confirmed to Mr. Jefferson by Mr. W. C. 
Nicholas, who also said he had it from General Smith. It 
appears that the communication thus made to Mr. Jefferson, 
was reduced by him to writing on the day on which it was 
made ; and that the incident which was the subject of it, 
took place on the morning of the same day, or at furthest 
on the night before. It is found also, that what was in this 
case reduced to writing, made no part of what was first 
reduced to writing on the 15th of April, 1806, [see Yol. lY. 
p. 521] but that it was then expressly referred to, as having 
been reduced to writing at the time. 

Opposed to this memorandum of Mr. Jefferson is first — 
the declaration of Mr. Livingston on the floor of the Senate 
of the United States, after a lapse of about twenty-nine 
years, " that as to the precise question put to him, [touch- 
ing the application of Mr. Bayard to General Smith,] he 
must say that after having taxed his recollection, as far as 
it could go, on so remote a transaction, he had no remem- 
brance of it;" implying that he might have had a conversa- 
tion with Mr. Jefferson rela'ting to the remote transaction, 
not within the scope of the precise question. Second — the 
declaration of General Smith in the same place, and after 
the same lapse of time, " that he had not the most distant 
recollection that Mr. Bayard had ever made such a propo- 
sition to him," adding, " that he never received from any 
man any such proposition." 



334 APPENDIX. 

On comparing these declarations, made after an interval 
of so many years, with the statement of Mr. Jeiferson re- 
duced to writing at the time, it is impossible to regard 
theirr as proof, that communications were not made to him 
by Mr. Livingston and Mr. W. C. Nicholas, which he 
[Mr. Jefferson,] understood to import, that Mr. Bayard 
had made to General Smith the application as stated. And 
if Mr. Jefferson was under that impression, however erro- 
neous it might be, his subsequent opinion and language in 
reference to Mr. Bayard, are at once accounted for, without 
any resort to the imputations in the publication. 

That there has been great error somewhere is apparent ; 
that respect for the several parties requires it to be viewed 
as involuntary, must be admitted ; that being involuntary, 
it must have proceeded from misapprehensions or failures 
of memory ; that there having been no interval for the 
failure of the memory of Mr. Jefferson, the error, if with 
him, must be ascribed to misapprehension. The resulting 
question therefore is, between the probability of misappre- 
hensions by Mr. Jefferson of the statements made to him at 
the time by Mr. Livingston and Mr. Nicholas, and the pro- 
bability of misapprehensions or failures of memory in some 
one or more of the other parties ; and the decision of this 
question must be left to an unbiased and intelligent 
public. 

The other passage is at page 521, Volume TV. of the 
Memoir, and is as follows, under date of April 15, 1806. 
Referring to a previous conversation with Colonel Burr, he 
says — 

" I did not commit these things to writing at the time, 
but I do it now, because in a suit between him [Col. Burr] 
and Cheetham, he had a deposition of Mr. Bayard taken, 
which seems to have no relation to the suit, nor to any 
other object than to calumniate me. Bayard pretends to 



JEFFERSON'8 note on MR. BAYARD. 335 

have addressed to me during the pending of the presidential 
election in February, 1801, through General Samuel Smith, 
certain conditions on which my election might be obtained, 
and that General Smith, after conversing with me, gave an- 
swers for me. This is absolutely false. No proposition 
of any kind was ever made to me on that occasion by 
General Smith, nor any answer authorized by me ; and 
this fact General Smith affirms at this moment." 

The reply given to this memorandum by the authors of 
the publication is a reference to the depositions of Mr. 
Bayard and General Smith, in the cause of Gillespie and 
Smith. 

It appears that Mr. Jefferson, attending merely to the 
matter of Mr. Bayard's deposition, did not distinguish 
between the suit of Burr and Cheetham, and that of 
Gillespie and Smith ; in the latter of which the deposition 
of General Smith as well as that of Mr. Bayard was taken. 

The part of the deposition of Mr. Bayard refei-red to by 
Mr. Jefferson is as follows : 

" I [Mr. Bayard] told him [General Smith] I should not 
be satisfied, nor agree to yield, till I had the assurance from 
Mr. Jefferson himself; but that if he. General Smith, would 
consult Mr. Jefferson, and bring the assurance from him, 
the election should be ended. The general made no diffi- 
culty in consulting Mr. Jefferson ; and proposed giving me 
his answer the next morning. The next day upon our 
meeting. General Smith informed me that he had seen 
Mr. Jefferson and stated to him the points mentioned; and 
was authorized by him to say that they corresponded with 
his views and intentions; and that we [Mr. B., &c.] might 
confide in him accordingly. The opposition of Vermont, 
&c. &c. was immediately withdrawn, and Mr. Jefferson was 
made President by the vote often States." 

Here it is explicitly stated, by the authority of General 



336 APPENDIX. 

Smith, that an assurance in the nature of a pledge was 
authorized by Mr. Jefferson to be given to Mr. Bayard, 
that he [Mr. Jefferson] would conform to the conditions 
on which his election was to be obtained. 

The terms used by Mr. Jeffersun in denouncing the fact 
deposed' by Mr. Bayard are accounted for, by the odious 
light in which it presented itself, by his consciousness that 
he had never authorized it, by the impressions unfavorable 
to Mr. Bayard which had been made upon him, by the in- 
formation, as he understood it, given him by Mr. Livings- 
ton and Mr. Nicholas ; and especially by the denial of the 
fact by General Smith at the moment. 

Certain it is, that there is a direct contrariety between 
the deposition of Mr. Bayard, and the memorandum of 
Mr. Jefl'erson, involving a question between General Smith 
and Mr. Bayard on the one hand, and between Mr. Jeffer- 
son and General Smith on the other. 

That Mr. Bayard understood General Smith to have 
borne an authorized pledge from Mr. Jefferson, is attested 
by the fact that he proceeded forthwith to execute the pur- 
pose of which such a pledge was the condition. 

Passing to the deposition of General Smith, given twelve 
days after that of Mr. Bayard, and on the same day on 
which the memorandum of Mr. Jefferson is dated, let it be 
seen what light is furnished by that document. 

The assertion of Mr. Jefferson in the memorandum is, 
that no proposition was ever made to him on that occasion 
by General Smith, nor any answer authorized by him ; and 
this fact General Smith affirms at this moment. 

In accordance with this assertion of Mr. Jefferson, and 
confirmation by General Smith, is the passage in the depo- 
sition of General Smith which declares "that he knew of 
no bargains or agreements, which took place at the time of 
the ballotting;" and the other passage which states " tiiat 



Jefferson's note on mr. bayard. 33Y 

he [M. Jefferson] had told me [General Smith] that any 
opinion he should give at this time might be attributed to 
improper motives. That to me [General Smith] he had no 
hesitation in saying that as to the public debt, &c. &c. he 
had not changed his opinion, &c. &c." This was so far 
from authorizing any use of what he said that might be 
attributed to improper motives, that it was expressed as 
between themselves, and consequently with a view to guard 
against any such use. 

The passage in the deposition of General Smith on which 
particular reliance seems to be placed, as contradicting the 
statements of Mr. Jefferson, is the following : 

" He [Mr. Bayard] then stated that he had it in his 
power (and was so disposed) to terminate the election, but 
he wished information as to Mr. Jefferson's opinions on 
certain subjects, and mentioned (I think) the same three 
points already alluded to, as asked by Colonel Parker and 
General Drayton, [viz. : respecting the navy, commerce, 
and public debt,] and received from me the same answer in 
substance (if not in words) that I had given to General 
Drayton. He added a fourth, to wit : What would be 
Mr. Jefferson's conduct as to the public oflScers ? He said 
he did not mean confidential officers, but by way of eluci- 
dating his question, he added, such as Mr. Latimer of Phi- 
ladelphia, and Mr. M'Lane of Delaware. I answered that 
I never had heard Mr. Jefferson say any thing on that sub- 
ject. He requested that I would inquire, and inform him 
the next day. I did so. And the next day (Saturday) 
told him that Mr. Jefferson had said that he did not think 
that such officers ought to be dismissed on political grounds 
only, except in cases where they had made imi)roper use of 
their offices, to force the officers under thern to vote con- 
trary to their judgment. That as to Mr. M'Lane, he had 
already been spoken to in his behalf by Major Eccleston, 
23 



338 APPENDT3t. 

and from the character given him by mat gentleman, he 
considered him a meritorious officer ; of course that he 
would not be displaced, or ought not to be displaced. I 
further added, that Mr. Bayard might rest assured (or 
words to that effect) that Mr. Jefferson would conduct as 
to those points, agreeably to the opinions I had stated as 
his. Mr. Bayard then said, we will give the vote on Mon- 
day, and we separated." 

Here it is to be observed, that General Snrtth does not 
say that he had made any proposition to Mr. Jefferson, or 
that he should communicate to Mr. Bayard the conversa- 
tion then held with Mr. Jefferson. 

The expression having most the aspect of a pledge is, 
" he [Mr. Jefferson] considered him [Mr. M'Lane] a meri- 
torious officer ; of course that he would not be displaced, 
or ought not to be displaced, &c." 

It cannot be denied that the phrase admits the construc- 
tion that " of course, <fcc." was a continuation of what was 
said by Mr. Jefferson, not the inference of General Smith. 
But to construe the expression as conveying a pledge from 
Mr. Jefferson is forbidden — 1. By the declaration of Gene- 
ral Smith in the same deposition, " that he [General 
Smith] knew of no bargains or agreements which took 
place at the time of the ballotting ;" 2. By the caution 
of Mr. Jefferson, as stated by General Smith, in expressing 
even his opinions at a time when they might be attributed 
to improper motives ; 3. By the confirmation given by 
General Smith to Mr. Jefferson's denial of the fact, that 
any proposition of any kind was ever made to him on any 
occasion by General Smith, or any answer authorized by 
him [Mr. Jefferson]. 

It is true that Mr. Bayard, as already observed, must 
have understood General Smith in this conversation as 
moaning that he was authorizod by Mr, Jefferson to say, 



JEFFERSON'S NOTE ON MR. BAYARD, 339 

" that the points mentioned (the conditions made by Mr. 
Bayard) corresponded with his [Mr. Jefferson's] views and 
intentions." But whether this discrepancy is to be ex- 
plained by misapprehensions at the tinae, or by the lapse 
of nearly five years, the explanation cannot invalidate the 
positive denial of Mr. Jefferson, that any such authority 
was given to General Smith, and his affirmance of the de- 
nial at the moment when it was put into the memorandum 
by Mr. Jeflerson. 

It can never be admitted that the authority of the deli- 
berate statement of Mr. Jefferson is impaired by its being 
without the sanction of an oath. Apart from its intrinsic 
sufficiency, no one can doubt that such a sanction would 
readily have been added on any occasion calling for it; and 
with the greater confidence, as the fact sworn to would have 
been reduced to writing at the time — an advantage always 
duly estimated in cases depending on the accuracy of 
recollection. 

The situation of Mr. Jefferson during the critical period 
of the presidential contest in the House of Representatives, 
was equally marked by its peculiarity and its importance. 
He saw the whole government in a state of convulsion ; he 
saw the danger of an absolute interregnum in its executive 
branch, the consequences of which could not be foreseen ; 
lie saw what he regarded as the will of the people about to 
be trampled upon, and the party whose ascendancy he be- 
lieved to be of vital importance to the cause of republican 
government, attempted to be broken down ; and he saw at 
the same time, no escape from all these dangers, but in 
pledges which might be stigmatized as an ambitious in- 
trigue, and a purchase of success at the expense of those 
principles and feelings which he had avowed and held in- 
violable. Happily the course of circumstances fulfilled his 



340 APPENDIX. 

patriotic wishes without the sacrifice which the accoraplish- 
nient of them had seemed to require. 

The situation of Mr. Bayard was also peculiar and try- 
ing. He was justly struck with horror at the prospect of 
an interregnum in the government so full of evils, and so 
fatal in its example ; and he was scarcely less alai'med at 
the danger which threatened what he held to be a vital 
policy of his country. But holding at the same time, in his 
hands, the event on which every thing depended, he availed 
himself of the opportunity of terminating the crisis in a 
manner which prevented the calamity which he most dreaded, 
and provided, as he believed, an adequate security against 
the other. 

Before dismissing the subject, a word may be proper 
with respect to the charge in the publication against Mr. 
Jefferson, of leaving the memorandum referring to Mr. 
Bayard's deposition, for posthumous ;ase, when the means 
of refuting it might be lost. 

The suit of Gillespie and Smith, which led to the depo- 
sition of Mr. Bayard, is said to have been a fictitious one, 
instituted for the purpose of obtaining and perpetuating 
testimony against the purity of Mr. Jefferson's conduct 
during the presidential election in 1801. The cause, it is 
understood, was never brought to trial ; and it is inferred 
from the resort to the source which furnished the copies of 
the depositions of Mr. Bayard and General Smith, that the 
depositions were never published. Of their existence, how- 
ever, (and in a custody supposed by Mr. Jefferson to be un- 
friendly,) and of the passage in that of Mr. Bayard, testifying 
that he [Mr. Jefferson,] had authorized General Smith to 
accede for him to certain conditions on which his election to 
the presidency might be obtained, Mr. Jefferson, it seems, 
was apprized from some friendly quarter. With this 
knowledge of a shaft that might posthumously inflict a deep 



PROTEST OF VIRGINIA. 341 

wour.d on his reputation, could he do less than provide a 
shield against it, by recording with his own hand the falsity 
of the charge, and the affirmance of its falsity at the mo- 
ment of his doing so, by the ' individual named as the 
authority for the charge ? What is now before the public 
proves that a weapon was in reserve, by which a posthu- 
mous assault on his reputation might be made. And if 
there be unfairness in the case, let candor pronounce on 
which side it is chargeable ; on that of Mr. Jefferson, or 
that, not of the (doubtless involuntary) deponents, but of 
the parties to the suit which rendered the precaution neces- 
sary 



. No. IV. 

THE SOLEMN DECLARATION AND PROTEST 
OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, ON 
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION OF 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND ON 
THE VIOLATIONS OF THEM. WRITTEN BY 
MR. JEFFERSON. 

We, the General Assembly of Virginia, on behalf, and 
in the name of the people thereof, do declare as follows : 

The states in North America which confederated to 
establish their independence on the government of Great 
Britain, of which Virginia was one, became, on that ac- 
quisition, free and independent states, and as such authorized 
to couvstitute governments, each for itself, in such form as it 
thought best. 

They entered into a compact, (which is called the Con- 
29* 



342 APPENDIX. 

stitution of the Fnited States of America,) by which they 
ascreed to unite in a single government as to their rehitions 
with each other, and with foreign nations, and as to certain 
other articles particularly specified. They retained at the 
same time, each to itself, the other rights of independent 
government) comprehending mainly their domestic in- 
terests. 

For the administration of their federal branch, they 
agreed to appoint, in conjunction, a distinct set of func- 
tionaries, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the manner 
settled in that compact; while to each, severally, and of 
course, remained its original right of appointing, each for 
itself, a separate set of functionaries, legislative, executive, 
and judiciary, also, for administering the domestic branch 
of their respective governments. 

These two sets of officers, each independent of the other, 
constitute thus a whole of government, for each state sepa- 
rately ; the powers ascribed to the one, as specifically made 
federal, exercised over the whole the residuary powers re- 
tained to the other, exercisable exclusively over its particular 
state, foreign herein, each to the others, as they were before 
the original compact. 

To this construction of government and distribution of 
its powers, the commonwealth of Virginia does religiously 
and affectionately adhere, opposing, with equal fidelity and 
firmness, the usurpation of either set of functionaries on the 
rightful powers of the other. 

But the federal branch has assumed, in some cases, and 
claimed in others, a right of enlarging its own powers by 
constructions, inferences, and indefinite deductions from 
those directly given, which this Assembly does declare to be 
usurpations of the powers retained to the independent 
branches, mere interpolations into the comoact, and direct 
infractions of it. 



PROTEST OP VIRGINIA. 343 

They claim, for example, and have commenced the exer- 
cise of a right to construct roads, open canals, and effect 
other internal improvements within the territories and juris- 
dictions exclusively belonging to the several states, which 
this Assembly does declare has not been given to that branch 
by the constitutional compact, but remains to each state 
among its domestic and unalienated powers, exercisable 
within itself and by its domestic authorities alone. 

This Assembly does further disavow and declare to be 
most false and unfounded, the doctrine that the compact, in 
authorizing its federal branch to lay and collect taxes, du- 
ties, imposts and excises to pay the debts and provide for 
the common defense and general welfare of the United 
States, has given them thereby a power to do whatever they 
may think, or pretend, would promote the general welfare, 
which construction would make that, of itself, a complete 
government, without limitation of powers ; but that the 
plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they might levy 
the taxes necessary to provide for the generah welfare, by 
the various acts of power therein specified and delegated to 
them, and by no others. 

"Nor is it admitted, as has been said, that the people of 
these states, by not investing their federal branch with all 
the* means of bettering their condition, have denied to them- 
selves any which may effect that purpose ; since, in the 
distribution of these means, they have given to that branch 
those which belong to its department, and to the states have 
reserved separately the residue which belong to them sepa- 
rately. And thus by the organization of the two branches 
taken together, have completely secured the first object of 
human association, the full improvement of their condition, 
and reserved to themselves all the faculties of multiplying 
their own blessings. 

Whilst the General Assembly thus declares the rights 



344 APPENDIX. 

retained by the states, rights which they have never yielded, 
and which this state will never voluntarily yield, they do 
not mean to raise the banner of disaffection, or of separa- 
tion from their sister states, co-parties with themselves to 
this compact. They know and value too highly the bless- 
ings of their Union as to foreign nations and questions 
arising among themselves, to consider every infraction as to 
be met by actual resistance. They respect too affectionately 
the opinions of those possessing the same rights under the 
same instrument, to make every difference of construction a 
ground of immediate rupture. They would, indeed, con- 
sider such a rupture as among the greatest calamities which 
could befall them ; but not the greatest. There is yet one 
greater, submission to a government of unlimited powers. 
It is only when the hope of avoiding this shall become abso- 
lutely desperate, that further forbearance could not be 
indulged. Should a majority of the co-parties, therefore, 
contrary to the expectation and hope of this assembly, pre- 
fer, at this time, acquiescence in these assumptions of 
power by the federal member of the government, we will be 
patient and suffer much, under the confidence that time, ere 
it be too late, will prove to them also the bitter consequences 
in which that usurpation will involve us all. In the mean- 
while, we will breast with them, rather than separate from 
them, every misfortune, save that only of living under a 
government of unlimited powers. We owe every other 
sacrifice to ourselves, to our federal brethren, and to the 
world at large, to pursue with temper and perseverance the 
great experiment which shall prove that man is capable of 
living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and 
securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, 
property and peace ; and further to show, that even when 
the government of its choice shall manifest a tendency to 
degeneracy, we are not at once to despair but that the will 



PROTEST OF VIRGINIA. 345 

and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform its 
aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, 
and restrain it within the rightful limits of self-gOTernmeut. 
And these are the objects of this Declaration and Protest. 

Supposing then, that it might be for the good of the 
whole, as some of its co-states seem to think, that the power 
of making roads and canals should be added to those 
directly given to the federal branch, as more likely to be 
systematically and beneficially directed, than by the inde- 
pendent action of the several states, this commonwealth, 
from respect to these opinions, and a desire of conciliation 
with its co-states, will consent, in concurrence with them, 
to make this addition, provided it be done regularly by an 
amendment of the compact, in the way established by that 
instrument, and provided also, it be sufficiently guarded 
against abuses, compromises, and corrupt practices, not 
only of possible, but of probable occurrence. 

And as a further pledge of the sincere and cordial attach- 
ment of this commonwealth to the union of the whole, so far 
as has been consented to by the compact called " The Con- 
stitution of the United States of America," (construed 
according to the plain and ordinary meaning of its language, 
to the common intendment of the time, and of those who 
framed it ;) to give also to all parties and authorities, time 
for reflection and for consideration, whether, under a tem- 
perate view of the possible consequences, and especially of 
the constant obstructions which an equivocal majority must 
ever expect to meet, they will still prefer the assumption of 
this power rather than its acceptance from the free-will of 
their constituents ; and to preserve peace in the meanwhile, 
we proceed to make it the duty of our citizens, until the 
legislature shall otherwise and ultimately decide, to acquiesce 
under those acts of the federal branch of our government 
which we have declared to be usurpations, and against 



346 APPENDIX. 

which, in point of right, we do protest as null and void, and 
never to be quoted as precedents of right. 



No. V. 



JEFFERSON'S ESTIMATE OF FEDERALISM AND 
DEMOCRACY.* 

Jefferson says " That at the formation of our govern- 
ment, many had formed their opinions on European writings 
and practices, believing the experience of old countries, and 
especially of England, oppressive as it was, to be a safer guide 
than mere theory. The doctrines of Europe were, that men 
in numerous associations cannot be restrained within the 
limits of order and justice but by forces physical and moral, 
wielded over them by authorities independent of their will. 
Hence their organization of kings, hereditary nobles, and 
priests. Still further to constrain .the brute force of the 
people, they deem it necessary to keep them down by hard 
labor, poverty, and ignorance, and to take from them, as 
from bees, so much of their earnings, as that unremitting 
labor shall be necessary to obtain a sufficient surplus barely 
to maintain their privileged orders in splendoi;and idleness, 
to fascinate the eyes of the people, and excite in them an 
humble adoration and submission, as to an order of superior 
beings. Although few among us had gone all these lengths 
of opinion, yet many had advanced, some more, some less, 
on the way. And in the Convention which formed our 
government, they endeavored to draw the cords of govern- 

* Frooj a letter tu Judge Johnson, of South Carolina, in 1823. 



FEDERALISM AND PEMOCRAOY. 34T 

ment as tight as they could obtain them, to lessen the de- 
pendence of the general functionaries on their constituents ; 
to subject to them those of the states ; and to weaken their 
means of maintaining the steady equilibrium which the 
majority of the Convention had deemed salutary for both 
brandies, general and local. To recover, therefore, in 
practice the powers which the nation had refused, and to 
warp to their own wishes those actually givenj was the 
steady object of the federal party. Ours, on the contrary, 
was to maintain the will of the majority of the Convention, 
and of the people themselves. We believed, with them, 
that man was a rational animal, endowed by nature with 
rights, and with an innate sense of justice ; and that he 
could be restrained from wrong, and protected in right, by 
moderate powers, confided to persons of his own choice, 
and held to their duties by dependence on his own will. 
We believed that the complicated organization of kings, 
nobles, and priests, was not the wisest or best to effect the 
happiness of associated man ; that wisdom and virtue were 
not hereditary ; that the trappings of such a machinery 
consumed, by their expense, those earnings of industry they 
were meant to protect, and, by the inequalities they pro- 
duced, exposed liberty to sufferance. We believed that 
men enjoying in ease and security the full fruits of their own 
Industry, enlisted by all their interests on the side of law 
and order, habituated to think for themselves, and to follow 
their reason as their guide, which would be more easily and 
safely governed, than with minds nourished in error, and 
vitiated and debased, as in Europe, by ignorance, indigence 
and oppression. The cherishment of the people was then 
our principle, the fear and distrust of them that of the 
other party. Composed, as we were, of the laboring in- 
terests of the country, we could not be less anxious for a 
government of law and order than were the inhabitants of 



848 APPENDIX. 

the cities, the strongholds of federalism. And whether 
our efforts to save the principles and form of our Constitu- 
tion have not been salutary, let the present republican free- 
dom, order, and prosperity of our country determine. 
History may distort truth, and will distort it for a time, by 
the superior efforts at justification of those who are con- 
scious of needing it most. Nor will the opening scenes of 
our present government be seen in their true aspect, until 
the letters of the day, now held in private hoards, shall be 
broken up and laid open to public view. What a treasure 
will be found in General Washington's cabinet, when it 
shall pass into the hands of as candid a friend to truth as he 
was himself! When no longer like Caesar's notes and 
memorandums in the hands of Anthony, it shall be open to 
the high priests of federalism only, and garbled to say so 
much and no more, as suits their view "" 



No. VI. 



JEFFERSON'S OPINION OP GEORGE WASH- 
INGTON. 

" His mind was great and powerful, without being of the 
very first order ; his penetration strong, though not so 
acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke ; and as far as 
he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in 
operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, 
but sure in conclusion. Hence the common remark of his 
officers, of the advantage he derived from councils of war, 
where, hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was 
best; and certainly no general ever planned his battles 



JEFFERSON S OPINION OF QEORaE WASHINGTON. 349 

more judiciously. But if deranged during the course of the 
action, if any member of his plan was dislocated by sudden 
circumstances, he was slow in a readjustment. The conse- 
quence was, that he often failed in the field, and rarely 
against an enemy in station, as at Boston and York. He 
was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the 
calmest unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his 
character was prudence, never acting until every circum- 
stance, every consideration, was maturely weighed, refrain- 
ing if he saw a doubt, but when once decided, going 
through with his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. 
His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible 
I have ever known ; no motives of interest or consanguinity, 
of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. 
He was, indeed, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good, 
and a great man. His temper was naturally irritable and 
high-toned ; but reflection and resolution had obtained a 
firm and habitual ascendancy over it. If ever, however, it 
broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. In 
his expenses he was honorable, but exact ; liberal in con- 
tributions to whatever promised utility ; but frowning and 
unyielding on all visionary projects, and all unworthy calls 
on his charity. His heart was not warm in its affections ; 
but he exactly calculated every man's value, and gave him 
a solid esteem proportioned to it. His person, you know, 
was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, his de- 
portment easy, erect and noble, the best horseman of his 
age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen on 
horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, where he 
might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in 
conversation; his colloquial talents were not above me- 
diocrity, possessing neither copiousness of ideas, nor 
fluency of words. In public, when called on for a sud- 
deu opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet 
3U 



350 APrENPTX. 

he wrote roadily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct 
style. This he had acquired by conversation with the 
world, for his education was merely readinor, writing, and 
common arithmetic, to which he added surveying- at a later 
day. His time was employed in action chiefly, reading lit- 
tle, and that only in agriculture and English history. His 
correspondence became necessarily extensive, and with 
journalizing his agricultural proceedings occupied most of 
his leisure hours within doors. On the whole, his character 
was, in its mass, perfect; in nothing bad, in a few points 
indifferent ; and it may truly be said, that never did nature 
and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, 
and to place him in the same constellation with whatever 
worthies have merited from man an everlasting remem- 
brance. For his was the singular destiny and merit of 
leading the armies of his country successfully through aa 
arduous war, for the establishment of its independence ; of 
conducting its councils through the birth of a government, 
new in its forms and principles, until it had settled down 
into a quiet and orderly train ; and of scrupulously obeying 
the laws through the whole of his career, civil and mili- 
tary, of which the history of the world furnishes no other 
example." 



No. VIL 

JEFFERSON'S OPINION OF PLATO. 

He speaks most contemptuously of the " whimsies, the 
puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work ;" and says 
he often asked himself how the world could have so long 
consented to give reputation to such nonsense. He thus 



Jefferson's opinion of plato. 351 

accounts for Plato's iuflaence among the moderns. " lu 
truth he is one of the race of genuine sophists, who has 
escaped the oblivion of his brethren, first, by the elegance 
of his diction, but chiefly by the adoption and incorpora- 
tion of his whimsies into the body of artificial Christianity. 
His foggy mind is ever presenting the semblances of ob- 
jects which, half seen through a mist, can be defined neither 
in form nor dimension. Yet this, which should have con- 
signed him to eai'ly oblivion, really procured him immor- 
tality of fame and reverence. The Christian priesthood, 
finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understand- 
ing, and too plain to need explanation, saw in the mys- 
ticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up 
an artificial system, which might, from its indistinctness, 
admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their 
order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. 
The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself 
are within the comprehension of a child ; but thousands of 
volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted 
on them : and for this obvious reason, that nonsense cannot 
be explained." 

Without denying that the sublimated speculations of 
Plato, in the main, merit the severe censure bestowed on 
them by Mr. Jefferson, another -explanation may be given 
for the favor which this philosopher found among the ear- 
lier Christian writers, without supposing it was the result 
of settled design. First, on account of his pure and lofty 
theism, and next because his mystical fancies could be made 
to harmonize with some of the more subtle doctrines which 
the controversies of the Christian sects had engendered ; 
and which were thus more readily received by the scholars 
of the age, when recommended by an authority of such 
celebrity 



352 APPENDIX. 



No. VIII. 

JEFFERSON'S RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF 
LIFE. 

Mr. Jefferson wrote a letter to his namesake, Thomas 
Jefferson Smith, of Washington, at the instance of his 
father, who requested hira to address something to his son 
wliich might have a salutary influence on his future life, 
when he could understand it. More solid advice was never 
conveyed in so small a compass, and no one could have a 
better chance for respectability or happiness who would 
faithfully observe these precepts. Those which respect his 
religious and moral character are six. L Adore God. 
2. Reverence and cherish your parents. 3. Love your 
neighbor as yourself, your country more than yourself. 
4. Be just. 5. Be true. 6. Murmur not at the ways of 
Providence. 

He also gives hira ten canons for the regulation of his 
practical life They were — L Never put off till to-morrow 
what you can do to-day. 2. Never trouble another for 
what you can do yourself. 3. Never spend your money 
before you have it. 4. Never buy what you do not want, 
because it is cheap ; it will be dear to you. 5. Pride 
costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold. 6. We never 
repent of having eaten too little. 1. Nothing is trouble- 
some that we do willingly. 8. How much pain have cost 
us the evils which have never happened. 9. Take things 
by the smooth handle. 10. When angry, count ten before 
you speak ; if very angry, a hundred. 

He also cited to him for his imitation, the translation of 
one of the Psalms, beginning, " Lord, who's the happy 



JEFFERSON S CORRESPONDENCE AFTER RETIREMENT. 353 

man ;" which he calls "the portrait of a good man by the 
most sublime of poets." 



No. IX. 



JEFFERSON'S CORRESPONDENCE AFTER HIS 
RETIREMENT. 

One of the inconveniences felt by Mr. Jefferson, from the 
conspicuous part he had acted in public affairs, as well as 
from his popularity, was the number of letters with which he 
was importuned. This tax, in a greater or less degree, 
every ex-president must pay ; but no one, unless perhaps 
General Washington, was ever called upon to pay it to the 
same extent as Mr. Jefferson. He sorely complains of it 
in a letter to Mr. Adams, dated June 21, 1822. " I do 
not know how far you may suffer, as I do, under the perse- 
cution of letters, of which every mail brings a fresh load. 
They are letters of inquiry for the most part, always of good- 
will, sometimes from friends whom I esteem, but much 
oftener from persons whose names are unknown to me, but 
■written kindly and civilly, and to which, therefore, civility 
requires answers. Perhaps the better known failure of 
your hand in its function of writing, may shield you in 
greater degree from this distress, and so far qualify the 
misfortune of its disability. I happened to turn to my let- 
ter list some time ago, and a curiosity was excited to count 
those received in a single year. It was the year before 
last. I found the number to be one thousand two hundred 
and sixty-seven, many of them requiring answers of elabo- 
rate research, and all to be answered with due attention 
30* 



354 ArpENBix. 

and consideration. Take an average of this number for a 
week or a day, and I will repeat the question suggested by 
other considerations in mine of the 1st. Is this life ? At 
best it is but the life of a mill-horse, who sees no end to his 
circle but in death. To such a life, that of a cabbage would 
be a paradise." 



No. X. 



JEFFERSON'S LETTERS TO THE AMERICAN 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 

" Monticello, January 28, HOT. 

" GrENTLEMEN : I have duly received your favor of the 
Tth instant, informing me that the American Philosophical 
Society have been pleased to name me their president. 
The suffrage of a body which comprehends whatever the 
American world has of distinction in philosophy and science 
in general, is the most flattering incident of my life, and that 
to wliich I am the most sensible. My satisfaction would be 
most complete, were it not for the consciousness that it is 
far beyond my titles. I feel no qualification for this dis- 
tinguished post, but a sincere zeal for all the objects of our 
institution, and an ardent desire to see knowledge so dis- 
seminated through the mass of mankind, that it may at 
length reach the extremes of so'ciety, beggars and kings. I 
pray you, gentlemen, to testify for me, to our body, my 
sense of their favor, and my disposition to supply by zeal 
what I may be deficient in the other qualifications proper 
for their service, and to be assured that your testimony 
cannot go beyond my feelings. 

" Permit me to avail myself of this opportunity of ex- 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 355 

pressitif? the sincere grief I feel for the loss of our beloved 
Kittenhouse. Genius, science, modesty, purity of morals, 
simplicity of manners, marked him as one of nature's best 
samples of the perfection she can cover under the human 
form. Surely, no society till ours, within the same compass 
of time, ever had to deplore the loss of two such members 
as Franklin and Rittenhouse. Franklin, our patriarch, 
whom philosophy and philanthropy announced the first of 
men ; and whose name will be like a star of the first magni- 
tude in the firmament of heaven, when the memory of those 
who have surrounded and obscured him, will be lost in the 
abyss of time. 

" With the most affectionate attachment to their memory, 
and with sentiments of the highest respect to the society, 
and to yourselves personally, I have the honor to be, gen- 
tlemen, " Your most obedient, 

'And most humble servant, 

" Th. Jefferson." 
« " To Messrs. Samuel Magaw, Jonathan Williams, Wil- 
liam Burton, and John Bleakley, Secretaries of the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society." 

"llonticello, Nov. 23, 1814. 
Sir : I solicited on a former occasion permission from 
the American Pliilosophical Society to retire from the 
honor of their chair, under a consciousness that distance, as 
well as other circumstances, denied me the power of exe- 
cuting the duties of the station, and that those on whom 
they devolved were best entitled to the honors they confer. 
It was the pleasure of the society at that time, that I should 
remain in their service, and they have continued since to 
renew the same marks of their partiality. Of these I have 
been ever duly sensible, and now beg leave to return my 
thanks for them with humble gratitude. Still I have never 



356 APPENDIX 



ceased, nor can I cease to feel, that I am holding honors 
without yielding requital, and justly belonging to others. 
As the period of election is now therefore approaching, I 
take the occasion of begging to be withdrawn from the 
attention of the society at their ensuing choice, and to be 
permitted now to resign the office of president into their 
hands, which I hereby do. I shall consider myself suffi- 
ciently honored in remaining a private member of their 
body, and shall ever avail myself with zeal of every occasion 
which may occur of being useful to them, retaining indeli- 
bly a profound sense of their past favors." 



No. XI. 

JEFFERSON'S OPINIONS OF BONAPARTE AND 
THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT. 

For several years the uninterrupted military successes of 
Napoleon Bonaparte, and the gradual enlargement of hia 
power to a height never before attained by man, excited 
not merely sympathy for the nations whom he despoiled of 
their independence, but very lively fears for that of the 
United States. It seemed as if the whole civilized world 
was destined, sooner or later, to bow to the ascendancy of 
his genius and fortune ; and though some hopes were en 
tertained that he would meet with an effectual check in 
Spain, yet similar hopes had too often proved abortive, for 
these to be very lively. In a letter to Mr. Langdon of 
New Hampshire, Mr. Jefferson thus discloses his views on 
this subject. " The fear that Bonaparte will come over to 
us and conquer us also, is too chimerical to be genuine. 



BONAPARTE AND THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT. 35 Y 

Supposing him to have finished Spain and Portugal, he has 
yet England and Russia to subdue. These two subdued, 
ancient Greece and Macedonia, the cradle of Alexander, 
his prototype, and Constantinople, the seat of empire for 
the world, would glitter more in his eye than our bleak 
mountains and rugged forests. Egypt too, and the golden 
apples of Mauritania, have for more than half a century 
fixed the longing eyes of France ; and with Syria, you 
know, he has an old affront to wipe out. Then come 
'Poutus and Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,' 
the fine countries on the Eui)hrates and Tigris, the Oxus 
and Indus, and all beyond the Hydaspes, which bounded 
the glories of his Macedonian rival ; with the invitations 
of his new British subjects on the banks of the Ganges, 
whom, after receiving under his protection the mother 
country, he cannot refuse to visit. When all this is done 
and settled, and nothing of the old world remains unsub- 
dued, he may turn to the new one. But will he attack us 
first, from whom he will get but hard knocks, and no 
money ? or will he first lay hold of the gold and silver of 
Mexico and Peru, and the diamonds of Brazil. A I'ej^ubli- 
can emperor, from his affection to republics, in'dependeut of 
motives of expediency, must grant to ours the Cyclops' boou 
of being the last devoured. While all this is doing, we are 
to suppose the chapter of accidents read out, and that 
nothing can happen to cut short or to disturb his enter- 
prises." 

The following was his theory of the English government : 
" The real power and property in the government is the 
great aristocratical families of the nation. The nest of 
office being too small for all of them to cuddle in at once, 
the contest is eternal which sliall crowd the other out. For 
+his purpose they are divided into two parties, the Inns and 
the Outs, so equal in weight that a small matter turns the 



358 APPENDIX. 

balance. To keep therasclves in when they are in, every 
stratagem must be practiced, every artifice used which may 
flatter the pride, the passions, or the power of the nation. 
Justice, honor, faith, must yield to the necessity of lieeping 
themselves in place. The question whether a measure is 
moral, is never asked ; but whether it will nourish the 
avarice of their merchants, or the piratical spirit of their 
navy, or produce any other effect which may strengthen 
them in their places. As to engagements, however positive, 
entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why they were 
then enemies ; they did every thing which was wrong ; and 
to reverse every thing they did must therefore be right. 
This is the true character of the British government in 
practice, however different its theory ; and it presents the 
singular phenomenon of a nation, the individuals of which 
are as faithful to their private engagements and duties, as 
honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and 
whose government is yet the most unprincipled at this day 
known." He then speaks of the general causes why princes 
should be superior to other men, and by way of illustratioa 
gives a sketch of the principal monarchs of Europe, which, 
in the style of broad caricature, retains enough of resem- 
blance to the originals to be readily acknowledged. 



CESSION OF LOUISIANA. . 359 

No. XII. 

JEFFERSON'S VIEWS ON THE CESSION OP 
LOUISIANA, IN A LETTER TO CAPTAIN 
LEWIS. 

" Washington, July 15, 1803. 
" Dear Sir : I dropped you a line on the llth inst., and 
last night received yours of the 8th. Last night also we 
received the treaty from Paris, ceding Louisiana, according 
to the bounds to which France had a right — price, eleven 
and a quarter millions of dollars, besides paying certain 
debts of France to our citizens, which will be from one to 
four millions. I received also from Mr. Lacepede at Paris, 
to whom I had mentioned your intended expedition, a let- 
ter, of which the following is an extract: 'Mr. Broughton, 
one of the companions of Captain Vancouver, went up 
Columbia River one hundred miles, in December, 1792. He 
stopped at a point which he named Vancouver, latitude 
45° 21', longitude 231° 50' E. Here the river Columbia 
is still a quarter of a mile wide, and from twelve to thirty- 
six feet deep. It is far then to its head. From this point 
Mount Hood is seen, twenty leagues distant, which is pro- 
bably a dcpendance of the Stony Mountains, of which Mr. 
Fiedler saw the beginning about latitude 40°, and the 
source of the Missouri is probably in the Stony Mountains 
If your nation can establish an easy communication by 
rivers, canals ' and short portages, between New York, for 
example, and the city [they were building, or to be built, 
for the badness of the writing makes it uncertain which is 
meant, but probably the last] at the month of Columbia, 
what a route for the commerce of Europe, Asia and 
America 1' 

" Accept my affectionate salutations, 

" Thomas Jefferson." - 



3G0 AT'i'i:>a)ix. 

No. XIII 
JEFFERSON'S FAMILY AND DESCENDANTS. 

I. One daughter — Martha Wayles Randolph, widow of 
the late Governor Uaiidolph. 

II. Eleven griviidcliildren, to wit 

1. Thomas Jellerson Randolph, 

2. Ellen Coolidge, wife of Joseph Coolidge of Boston. 

3. Virginia Trist, wile of Nicholas P. Trist, consul at 

Havana. 

4. Cornelia Randolph. 

5. Mary Randolph. 

6. James Madison Randolph, since deceased. 

*r. Benjamin Franklin Randolph, a physician in Albe- 
marle. 

8. Meriwether Lewis Randolph, residing in Arkansas. 

9. Septimia Randolph. 

10. George Wythe Randolph, midshipman in the navy. 

11. Francis Eppes, the only grandchild by his daughter 

Maria Eppes. 

III. Fourteen great-grandchildren, to wit : 

The children of Thomas Jeiferson Randolph — six. 

The children of Ann Bankliead, deceased, the eldest 
daughter of Mrs. Randolph — four. 
• A daughter of Mrs. Coolidge. 

The children of Francis E[)pes — two. 

A daughter of Mrs. Trist. 
Since Mr. Jetierson's death, time has made its usual 
changes, both by deaths and births, and the number of his 
descendants now exceeds forty, among whom are several of 
the fifth veneration. 



SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. 361 

No. XIV. 

JEFFERSON'S OPINIONS IN REFERENCE TO 
THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI.* 

" Having been in America during the period in which 
this institution was formed, and being then in a situation 
which gave me opportunities of seeing it in all its stages, I 
may venture to give M. de Meusnier materials for a suc- 
cinct history of its origin and establishment. I should 
write its history in the following form. 

" When, on the close of that war which established the 
independence of America, its army was about to be dis- 
banded, the officers who, during the course of it had gone 
through the most trying scenes together, who, by mutual 
aids and good offices had become dear to one another, felt 
with great apprehension of mind the approach of that mo- 
ment which was to separate them, never, perhaps, to meet 
again. They were from different States, and from distant 
parts of the same State. Haz-ard alone could therefore give 
them but rare and partial occasions of seeing each other. 
They were, of course, to abandon altogether the hope of 
ever meeting again, or to devise some occasion which 
might bring them together. And why not come together 
on purpose at stated times ? Would not the trouble of such 
a journey be greatly overpaid by the pleasure of seeing 
each other again, by the sweetest of all consolations, the 
talking over the scenes of difficulty and endearment they 
had gone through ? This, too, would enable them to know 
who of them should succeed in the world, who should be 

* The remainder of this Appendix is taken frem the " Observations of 
Henry Lee, of Virginia, on the Writings of Thomas JefTcrson," Ac. This 
is a very valuable work, and not generally accessible to the reader. The 
following extracts possess more than ordinary interest. 

31 



3G2 APPENDIX. 

unsuccessful, and to open the purses of all to every laboring 
brother. This idea was too soothing not to be cherished 
in conversation. It was improved into that of a regukvr 
association, with an orgaiyzed administration, with periodi- 
cal meetings, general and particular, fixed contributions for 
those who should be in distress, and a badge, by which 
not only those who had not had occasion to become pi'r- 
Bonally known should be able to recognize one another, but 
which should be worn by their descendants, to perpetuate 
among them the friendship which had bound their ancestors 
together. 

" Gen. "Washington was, at that moment, oppressed with 
tke operation of disbanding an army which was not paid ; 
and the difficulty of this operation was increased, by some 
two or three States having expressed sentiments, which did 
not indicate a sufficient attention to their payment. He 
was sometimes present when his officers were fashioning in 
their conversations their newly proposed society. He saw 
the innocence of its origin, and foresaw no effects less in- 
nocent. He was at that time writing his valedictory letter 
to the States, which has been so deservedly applauded by 
the world. Far from thinking it a moment to multiply the 
causes of irritation, by thwarting a proposition which had 
absolutely no other basis but that of benevolence and 
friendship, he was rather satisfied to find himself aided in 
his difficulties by this new incident, which occupied, and at 
the same time, soothed, the minds of bis officers. He 
thought too, that this institution would be one instrument 
the more for strengthening the federal bond, and for pro- 
moting federal ideas. The institution was formed. They 
incorporated into it the officers of the French army and navy, 
by wliose sides they had fought, and with whose aid they 
had finally prevailed." 

After stating that Gen. Washington accepted the office 



SOCIETY OF THE CIXCrXXATI. 863 

of President of the society, (which he hehi until his death) 
and mentioning the opposition which its supposed tendency 
to divide the comnumity into distinct orders, soon excited, 
he proceeds : — 

" The uneasiness excited by tliis institution, had very 
early cauLrht the notice of Gen. Washington. Still recol- 
lecting all the purity of the motives which gave it birth, he 
became sensible that it might produce political evils, which 
the warmth of those motives had masked. Add to this, that 
it was disapproved by the mass of citizens of the Union. 
This alone was reason strong enough in a country where 
the will of the majority is the law, and ought to be the law. 
He saw that the objects of the institution were too light to 
be opposed to considerations as serious as these ; and that 
it was become necessary to annihilate it absolutely. On 
this, therefore, he was decided. The first annual meeting 
at Philadelphia, was now at hand ; he went to that, deter- 
mined to exert all his influence for its suppression. He 
proposed it to his fellow-othcers, and urged it with all his 
powers. It met an opposition which was observed to cloud 
his face with an anxiety that the most distressful scenes of 
the war had scarcely ever produced. It was canvassed for 
several days, and at length it was no more a doubt what 
would be its ultimate fate. The order was on the point of 
receiving its annihilation, by a vote of a great majority of 
its members. In this moment their envoy arrived from 
France, charged with letters from the French officers, ac- 
cepting with cordiality the proposed badges of union, with 
solicitations from others to be received into the order, and 
with notice that their respectable sovereign had been 
pleased to recognize it, and to permit his officers to wear its 
badges. The prospect was now changed. The question 
assumed a new form. After the oiler made by them, and 
accepted by their friends, in what wurds could they clothe 



364 APPENDIX. 

a proposition to retract it, which would not cover them- 
selves with the reproaches of levity and ingratitnde — which 
would not appear an insult to those whom they loved ? 
Federal principles, popular discontent, were considerations 
whose weight was known and felt by themselves. But 
would foreigners know and feel them equally ? Would they 
so far acknowledge tlieir cogency, as to permit, without 
indignation, the Eagle and Ribbon to be torn from their 
breasts, by the very hands v/hich placed them there ? The 
idea revolted the whole society They found it necessary, 
then, to preserve so much of their institution as might con- 
tinue to support this foreign branch, while they should 
prune off every other which would give offense to their 
fellow-citizens ; thus sacrificing, on each hand, to their 
friends, and to their country. 

The society was to retain its existence, its name, its 
meetings, and its charitable funds ; but these last were to 
be deposited with their respective legislatures. The order 
was to be no longer hereditary. The Eagle and Ribbon 
were indeed retained, because they were worn, and they 
wished them to be worn by their friends in a country where 
they would not be objects of offense ; but themselves never 
wore them. They laid them up in their bureaus, with the 
medals of American Independence, with those of the trophies 
they had taken and the battles they had won. But 
through all the United States no officer is seen to offend 
the public eye with a display of this badge. These changes 
have tranquillized the American States. Their citizens feel 
too much interest in the reputation of their officers, and 
value too much whatever may serve to recall to the memory 
of their allies the moments wherein they formed but one 
people, not to do justice to the circumstances which pre- 
vented the total annihilation of the order ; and it would be 
an extreme affliction to them, if the domestic reformation 



SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. 3G5 

wliicli has been found necessary, if the ce\isnres of individuul 
writers, or if any other circiirastanee, sliould discourage 
the wearing their badge by their allies, or lessen its repu- 
tation." He then adds, that the above is "a short and true 
history of the Order of the Cincinnati." 

From this account then, we have the grave antliority of 
Mr. Jefferson himself, for saying, that the Society of Cin- 
cinnati was founded exclusively on sentiments of " 'uenevo- 
lence and friendship," was " innocent in its origin," and as 
far as its members could foresee, "no less innocent in its 
effects," was considered likely to smooth the difficulties of 
disbanding the army, and to strengthen the tendencies to 
union among the States. That as soon as unforeseen ob- 
jections were entertained toward it by their fellow-citizens, 
" a great majority" of its members, in conformity with the 
advice of Gen. Washington, and in patriotic deference to 
the sovereignty of the public will, resolved on its immediate 
annihilation. That this radical measure was prevented 
solcUj by an accidental circumstance, which opi)osed to it 
their respect, gratitude, and attachment for the Frmi'li 
officers, who, in compliance with their invitation, and l)y 
permission of their own government, had become members 
of it. That, influenced by a desire to comply with the 
opinions of their countrymen, and at the same time to avoid 
disrespect to their foreign friends, they pruned off the 
hereditary quality, and other objectionable parts of their 
institution, and preserved only so much as might support 
the foreign branch. That this reformation satisfied the 
people of the United States, who felt a pride in the estima- 
tion in which the society was held abroad, and would view, 
with "extreme affliction," any evidence of a decline in that 
flattering sentiment. 

This, he says, is "the true history" of the society. It 
does not look like " carving aid for itself hereditary dis- 
31* 



366 APPENDIX. 

/inr/io??.s-," or " loicering over (he ConstUution eternaU;/.^^ 
And .as to "accumulating a capital in their separate 
treasury," he declares the object of that design (for no 
capital of any consequence ever was accumulated, the great 
majority of the officers having lived and died poor,) was to 
relieve the necessities of their unfortunate associates; and 
that the funds, should any be collected, were to be placed 
for that {)urpose in the treasuries to the several States. 

As he atlirms that his account of M. de Meusnier was a 
h^ue hiti'or(/, it is hardly necessary to say that the one here 
given to Mr. Madison could not be any thing but a libel 
upon men whose patriotism, benevolence, friendship and 
modesty, throughout all its stages, he himself had solemnly 
attested. That he presented the genuine account to his 
French friend, and put the base one on Mr. Madison, you 
may be inclined to attribute to the predominance of 
familiarity over respect in their intimacy. But the fact 
is, that the truth was to be locked up in a foreign library, 
or to reach few American readers, and was intended to 
minister to no ulterior purpose. Whereas, the article 
fabricated for Mr. Madison, was for home consumption ; 
was a thread in that web of misrepresentation which he was 
weaving around the character of Gen. Washington — a web 
of torments — which, if we believe him, were not less fierce 
and mighty than those which writhe and swell the figure of 
Canova's Hercules — when the distracted demigod — 

" Felt the envenom'd robo, and tore, 
Through pain, up b}' the roots Thessaliaii pines, 
And Lichas from the top of (Eta threw. 
Into the Euboio sea." 

These torments were cruelly inflicted, as they were calmly 
witnessed, for the purpose of bringing his own claims 
before the people with a better chance of success. 



SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. 36t 

As this hatred and suspicion of the Cincinnati Society 
were evidently spurious and unfounded, you will be the 
less surprised to learn that the zeal expressed in the same 
letter, in behalf of the democratic societies, " the friends of 
popular rights," was not the fruit of principle but of 
interest. At page 345 of his fourth volume, is a letter 
from Mr. JefiFerson of the 6th of March, 1822, in which he 
declines an invitation to become a member of a society 
whose object was " to promote civilization and improvement 
among the Indians." In this letter he observes — " I shall 
not undertake to draw a line uf demarcation between private 
associations of laudable views and unimposing numbers, 
and those whose magnitude may rivalize and jeopardize the 
march of regular government. Yet such a line does exist. 
I have seen the days — they were those which preceded the 
Revolution — when even this last and perilous engine be- 
came necessary ; but they were days which no man would 
wish to see a second time." He proceeds to deprecate 
such associations upon the ground of their being bad and 
prolific examples, of being " wheels within a wheel," and by 
reference to the excesses perpetrated by the Jacobin Clubs 
of France. 

It would appear, therefore, that while Mr. Jefferson felt 
called on " as a good citizen" to discourage a society insti- 
tuted for the purpose of " promoting civilization and im- 
provement among the Indians," as setting a dangerous 
example, and tending " to rivalize and jeopardize the march 
of regular government," he pronounced Gen. Washington 
guilty of " an inexcusable aggression on popular rights," 
when he discountenanced in terms of anxious patriotism 
and considerate dignity, the proceedings of organized 
political clubs, which had nearly involved us in foreign war, 
in opposition to "the march of regular government," and 
had, as ho and his wliole Cabinet believed, and as a majority 



868 ArrENMX. 

of the members of tbe legislature declared, fomented a 
formidable domestic insurrection. 

Since, of his contradictory opinions on this subject, those 
expressed in his letter to Mr. Morse are said to be con- 
scientious, the natural and melancholy conclusion is, that 
the false and scandalous ones again fall to the share of Mr. 
Madison. 

But to go on with his letter of December, 1794. After 
attempting to separate these societies from their proceed- 
ings, affecting " to put out of sight the persons" whose 
confessed misdemeanors he calls misbehavior, he proceeds 
to affirm that the President's allusion to them was generally 
and justly considered " an abstract attempt on the natural 
and constitutional rights of the people." 

The injustice of these expressions is much more conspicu- 
ous than their meaning. What is " an abstract attempt," 
on a practical subject — or on any subject ? But a more 
important question is, what sense of equity was Mr. Jeffer- 
son guided by, when he pronounced the societies innocent, 
in spite of practical guilt, and Gen. Washington guilty, in 
spite of practical innocence ? Is this judging the tree by its 
fruits, or men by their works ? 

It may be here observed, that while in his letters to Gen 
Washington of May the 14th and September the 7th, 1794, 
and that of June the 19th, 1796, the last, it appears, he 
ever wrote him, he was humbugging that confiding friend, 
that kind benefactor, that illustrious patriot, with professions 
of undiminished attachment for him, unabated love for 
retirement and repugnance to politics — with such expres- 
sions as "I cherish tranquillity too much to suffer political 
things to enter my mind at all," " it is a great pleasure to 
me to retain the esteem and approbation of the President," 
" I put away this disgusting dish of old fragments, and talk 
to you about my peas and clover," with " the Albany pea," 



Jefferson's hostility to burr. 369 

— " the hog pea," — " the true winter vetch," — " the Carolina 
drill," — and " the Scotch threshing-machine," he was col- 
lecting from " an extensive circle of observation and infor- 
mation," and transmitting to the head of the opposition in 
Congress the most nnjust and poisonous opinions that 
could possibly be fabricated of the President's character 
and conduct. This would of itself have furnished cause 
sufficient for Gen. Lee, or any other sincere friend of the 
President, to put him on his guard, to open his eyes to the 
ambush from which this pretended friend and philosopher 
was secretly wounding him — where, too, his great and 
patriotic soul felt the injury the most acutely — in the love 
and confidence of his country. 



No. XV. 



JEFFERSOIS^'S PROFESSIONS OF FRIENDSHIP 
AND SECRET HOSTILITY TO BURR. 

To this person he continued to manifest the most respect- 
ful friendship, as will be seen by a letter of the 1st of 
February, 1801, just before the competition for the Presi- 
dency was to be decided by the House of Representatives, 
and when it was desirable not to irritate Burr or disgust 
his friends. 

" Dear Sir : It was to be expected that the enemy would 
endeavor to sow tares between us that they might divide us 
and our friends. Every consideration assures me that you 
will be on your guard against this, as I assure you I am 
strongly. I hear of one stratagem so imposing and so base, 
that it is proper I should notice it to you. Mr. Mumford, 



370 APPENDIX, 

M'ho is here, says he saw at New York before he left it, an 
original letter of mine to Judge Breckenridge, in which are 
sentiments highly injurious to you. He knows my hand- 
writing, and did not doubt that to be genuine. I inclose 
you a copy taken from the press copy of the only letter I 
ever wrote Judge Breckenridge in my life ; the press copy 
itself has been shown to several of our mutual friends here. 
Of consequence the letter seen by Mr. Mumford must have 
been a forgery, and if it contains a sentiment unfriendly or 
disrespectful to you, I affirm it solemnly to be a forgery, as 
also if it varies from the copy enclosed. With the common 
trash of slander I should not think of troubling you, but 
the forgery of one's hand-writing is too imposing to be 
neglected. A mutual^ knowledge of each other furnishes us 
with the best test of the contrivances which will be practiced 
by the enemies of both." 

The dilierence here in point of fact is between the state- 
ments of Mr. Mumford and the press copy ; and as Mr. 
Jefferson himself affirms that, from the commencement of his 
acquaintance with Burr, he was in the habit of expressing 
to Mr. Madison his suspicions of his honesty, and perceived 
that he kept himself in the market, it is reasonable to sup- 
pose that he indulged the same sentiments in letters to other 
gentlemen, and that consequently the press copy was mis- 
taken. This is the more probable, as a similar accident 
will hereafter be pointed out, and as he does not refer Burr 
to Judge Breckenridge, either for a sight of the letter itself 
or for a copy of it. The last sentence, however, contains 
the quintessence of deceit, where he tells Burr, that by 
reflecting on their mutual sincerity and reciprocal respect, 
he would furnish himself with the best possible test for 
detecting the poison of the mischief-making fabrications of 
their enemies. That is, ' if you hear any thing of me incon- 
sistent with honor on my part, and with respect and 



JEFFERSON S IIOSTTLTTY TO BITRR. 3T1 

friendship for you, you have only to feel assured that it is a 
base contrivance of our mutual enemies to sow tares between 
us. This is the reasoning I shall employ, should a similar 
stratagem be attempted on me.' Now only suppose that 
Mr. Madison had just at this time discovered to Burr one 
of the " habitual cautions," which he had received in regard 
to him ! 

When, however, in 180Y, his friend Burr was arrested on 
a charge of treason, he discovered that he had all along 
despised him, in spite both of his own endearing professions, 
and of the equally cordial effusions of his press cojyy. In a 
letter to Mr. Giles of the 20th of April, 180T, (Vol. lY. p. 
74,) he says: "Against Burr personally I never had one 
hostile sentiment. I never indeed thought him an honest, 
frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or 
other perverted machine, whose aim or shot you could 
never be sure of." 

The contrast between these sentiments and those in the 
Anas, on the one hand, and those in his letters to Burr, — 
all volunteers, not answers — on the other ; will be useful in 
enabling you to comprehend the difference of his style, 
when speaking to a man he hated, and of him. It justifies 
the inference that at the very moment he was so grossly 
traducing Gen. Lee to Gen. Washington, declaring that 
he had never " done him any other injury than that of de- 
clining his confidences," he would have been glad, had there 
been the least prospect of promoting his own interest by it, 
to encumber him with epistles and press copies of homage 
and attachment. 

Of the object of the conspiracy, his conduct in regard to 
which is now to be compared with that pursued in quelling 
the Western insurrection, he gives the following account in 
a letter of the 2d of April, 180T, to our minister in Spain, 
(Vol. IV. p. 71,) " Although at first he proposed a separa- 



372 APPENDIX. 

tion of the Western country, and on that ground received 
encouragement and aid from Yrnjo, according to the usual 
spirit of his government toward us, yet he very early saw 
that the fidelity of the Western country was not to be shaken, 
and turned himself wholly toward Mexico." And in the 
letter to Mr. Giles of the 20th, he thus describes the points 
of treason he expects to be established, by witnesses whose 
testimony he affirms " will satisfy the world, if not the 
Judge, of Burr's guilt" — "And I do suppose the following 
overt acts will be proved : 1. The enlistment of men in a 
regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round 
Blennerhasset's island, when they discovered Governor 
Tiffin's men to be on them modo guerrino arriati. 3. The 
rendezvous of Burr with his men at the mouth of Cumber- 
land. 4. His letter to the acting Governor of Mississippi, 
holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. His capitulation 
regularly signed with the aids of the Governor, as between 
two independent hostile commanders." 

These acts, he says, amount iucontestably to treason. 
Yet the attack of five hundred armed men on the house of 
the inspector of the revenue, and a detachment of the troops 
of the United States — the burning the inspector's house 
and forcing an officer of the United States Army to march 
out and surrender — the shooting at the marshal with intent 
to kill him, while in the execution of his duty — the seizing 
and violating the mail of the United States on its passage 
to the seat of government — the arrest and intimidation of 
the marshal — the banishment of those citizens of Pittsburg, 
who were suspected of allegiance to their country — open 
resistance to the laws and defiance of the government — the 
rejection of an offered amnesty — the preparation of a force 
of t,000 men to wage war against the United States, and 
to effect ultimately a dissolution of the Union — all these 
revolting outrages, in the comparative infancy of the gov- 



JEFFERSON'S HOSTILITY TO BURR. 3t3 

ernraent, when they were leveled at the peace and di2:nity 
of the nation, through the fame and feelings of President 
Washington, Mr. Jefferson considered as nearly harmless, 
as provoked by " an infernal law," and as at most merely 
"riotous transactions ! !" 

The force with which Burr was to accomplish his designs, 
he estimates as follows, in a letter of the 14th of July, 1801, 
to Gen. La Fayette. (Vol. IV. p. 91.) "Burr had proba- 
bly engaged one thousand men to follow his fortunes, with- 
out letting them know his projects, otherwise than by 
assuring them the government approved of them. The 
moment a proclamation issued undeceiving them, he found 
himself left with about thirty desperadoes only." This 
conspirator, with his gang of thirty followers, however, was 
too formidable to be left unpunished, whether in due course 
of law or not, and therefore the President of the United 
States descended from his station, and took the lead in 
hunting him down. 

Accordingly, on the 2d of June, 1801, he opened a 
correspondence with the District Attorney of the United 
States, (Vol. IV. pp. 15 to 103,) which for indecency to 
the court, disrespect for the independence of a co-ordinate 
department, outrage upon the sanctity of justice, and cruelty 
to the prisoner, was never exceeded by the executive 
authority of any nation, in any age. After saying to Mr. 
Hay, " While Burr's case is depending before the court, I 
will trouble you from time to time with what occurs tome," 
— he proceeds to counsel him as to the management of 
various stages of the prosecution, inspiring him all the 
while with distrust of the purity of the court before which 
he WAS pleading, until the 19th of June, when he makes a 
suggestion, the wickedness of which cannot be adequately 
expi'essed in any language but his own. (p. 86.) "I in- 
close you the copy of a letter received last night, and giving 
32 



3T4 APPENDIX. 

sin.t^'ular information. I have inquired into the character 
of Graybell. He was an old revolutionary captain, is now 
a flour merchant in Baltimore, of the most respectable 
character, and whose word would be taken as implicitly as 
any man's for whatever he affirms. The letter writer also is 
a man of entire respectability. I am well informed that for 
more than a twelvemonth it has been believed in Baltimore, 
generally, that Burr was engaged in some criminal enter- 
prise, and that Luther Martin knew all about it. We 
think you should immediately dispatch a subpoena for Gray- 
bell ; and while that is on the road, you will have time to 
consider in what form you will use his testimony : e. g. 
shall Luther Martin be summoned as a witness against 
Burr, and Graybell held ready to confront him ? It may be 
doubted whether we could examine a witness to discredit 
our own witness. Besides, the lawyers say that they are 
privileged from being forced to breaches of confidence, and 
that no others are. Shall we move to commit Luthei* 
Martin, as particeps criminis with Burr ? Graybell will fix 
upon him suspicion of treason at least. And at any rate, 
his testimony will put down this unprincipled and impudent 
federal bull-dog, and add another proof that the most 
clamorous defenders of Burr are all his accomplices. It 
will explain why Luther Martin flew so hastily to the aid 
of bus 'honorable friend,' abandoning his clients and their 
property during the session of a principal court in Mary- 
land, now filled, as I am told, with t^ie clamors and ruin of 
his clients." 

You perceive from this that a general heiief, re];)orted to 
exist in Baltimore, of Burr's having meditated an unlawful 
enterprise, of some sort or other, and that Luther Martin 
/r-'f^o all about it ; with the second hand assertion that this 
knowledge could be proved by a third person, was cause 
sudlcioul in the humane and philosopliic mind of Mr. 



JEFFERSON'S HOSTILITY TO BURR. 375 

Jefferson to fix the stigma of treason on Luther Martin, by 
arresting him as particeps criminis with the prisoner he 
was defending. And if this unjust proceeding should fail 
of every other effect, it would at least have the happy one 
" of putting down this unprincipled and impudent federal 
bull-dog" — that is, it would silence him as an advocate for 
Burr — would deprive the prisoner of the assistance of the 
counsel on whom he peculiarly relied in a trial for his life, 
and thus expose him to all the violence and stratagem that 
the zeal of lawyers and the unbridled hate of the Executive 
could impart to the prosecution. Had this cruel project 
been fulfilled, Burr would have stood like Bothwell, his 
sword-arm broken and his dagger lost, while his blood- 
thirsty and hypocritical adversary, represented by the 
President, brandished his impatient blade aloft, and plunged 
it to the hilt in his body. 

In unison with this unparalleled mixture of craft and 
inhumanity, more fit for the cells of the Spanish Inquisition 
than for an American court of justice, is his resentment at 
the zeal with which Mr. Martin undertook the defense of a 
man, who, though accused, was yet unconvicted, was under 
the legal presumption of innocence, had been dear to Mar- 
tin as a friend, and had, moreover, a right, on the usual 
conditions, to his services. The whole correspondence with 
Mr. Hay is of this cast, diversified occasionally with 
promises of new witnesses, and interspersed toward the 
close of the trial with insinuations against the integrity of 
the court ; leaving but one doubt as to the disposition of 
President Jefferson at the time, that is, whether he was more 
eager to hang the judge or the criminal. 



3T6 APPENDIX. 



No. XYI. 

JEFFERSON'S STRICTURES ON WASHING- 
TON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

Should your good-nature revolt at the vindictive appear- 
ance of the examination, through the perplexities of which 
I am endeavoring to guide you, I have little to soothe it 
with, but an expression of my regret, or to relieve it by, 
but an appeal to your justice. If Mr. Jefferson's character 
is now for the first time to be displayed in its true light, and 
to be divested of the folds of artifice and delusion in which 
he disguised it, it is only because he painted in false and 
opprobrious colors that of others ; and though it be, when 
thus exposed, a subject of unpleasing contemplation, it may 
prove a useful and instructive study. In the system of the 
moral world, it seems to be established by Providence, that 
injustice done to our neighbor should sooner or later recoil 
on ourselves. And naturalists tell us, that although, at first 
sight, the history of the lion appears more entertaining than 
that of all other beasts, yet that on close inspection, more 
vivid curiosity and agreeable wonder are excited by the 
structure of the spider — that sly insect, which — 

"Throned on the centre of his thin designs, 
Proud of a vast extent of flimsy lines," 

entangles and destroys the bold hornet and the blossom- 
loving bee. 

Pursuing then the analysis of this envenomed letter to 
Mr. Madison, let us pass from its palpable injustice toward 
Gen. Washington and Gen. Lee, to the consideration of its 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 3TT 

nuiin design, which is both concealed, and betrayed by aa 
artifice, not unlike the trick of an Indian juggler. The 
object of all Mr. Jefferson's schemes and movements, of his 
friendships and hatreds, his slanders and praises ; of that 
philosophy, for worship in the sanctuary of which, he would 
have the world believe he was predestined by nature, (Vol. 
lY. p. 126, et passim,) of his mrs-quotation from the 
Georgics, (Yol. III. p. 337,) his " mould-board of least 
resistance," (p. 334 ;) of that retirement which was so pro- 
found, that lest it should be unnoticed, he proclaimed it in 
all directions, as the Irishman was to whistle when he should 
fall asleep ; the real object of all these professions, passions, 
pretensions, and maneuvres, was the office of President. 
For this he deserted the Cabinet of Washington, against 
the entreaties of that illustrious man ; and having got into 
a private station, — for this, he was now wriggling and 
stretching to get out of it. To Mr. Madison, whose 
powerful aid was indispeasable, he was holding out his hand 
for help. 

In disparaging and traducing Gen. Washington so in- 
dustriously, his intention was not to supplant him ; for 
besides that he could neither have desired nor hoped to 
compete with him before the people, he knew the general 
was now in his second and last official term. But his design 
was by curtailing the influence of his name and opinions, 
to change the course of succession, which, should that influ- 
ence be left unimpaired, the sense of the nation would 
probably give to the Chief Magistracy — devolving it first 
on Adams, whom he disliked, next on Hamilton, whom he 
hated ; whose superiority in the Cabinet he had felt and 
still resented ; whose ready eloquence, cogent reasoning, 
practical views, ascendant genius, martial spirit, generous 
character, rebuked and foiled his own subtle sagacity, 
pusillanimous temper, and indirect ambition. 
32* 



378 APPENDIX. 

As it was to be supposed that Mr. Madison was apprized 
of Gen. Washington's wish to appoint him Secretary of 
State, and for that and other reasons retained a degree of 
kindness and respect for him, there was room to apprehend 
that his sense of justice would revolt at the gross and viru- 
lent detraction which Mr. Jefferson, in execution of one 
part of his scheme, had thought proper to hazard. There- 
fore, as physicians expel one poison from the body by the 
introduction of a more energetic one, the sage of Monticello 
proceeded to counteract the occurrence of remorse, by 
means of those never-failing agents, vanity and ambition. 
While urging Mr. Madison to persevere in his meritorious 
opposition, and foretelling that a change of men and 
measures was soon to take place, he encroached so far on 
the " double delicacy" of himself, and the simple modesty 
of his friend, as to insist that if he does retire, it must only 
be " to a more splendid and a more efficacious post ;" for 
which, by the way, by an evolution peculiar to his own 
tactics, he had himself retired. The heartfelt joy this 
promotion of Mr. Madison over his own head would give 
him, may be better conceived than described ; steeped as he 
lay in the charms of a " retirement," which he protests he 
" would not give up for the empire of the universe." 

Nothing could be more skillful than this move. Like that 
of a knight at chess, it placed in check King, Queen and 
Castle, and all at once. It told the opposition that it was 
time to bring forward determinedly a candidate for the 
Presidency. It said to Mr. Madison, " As I have proposed 
you for this post, you cannot do less than support me, upon 
that principle of seniority and civility which would be ob- 
served were we to come together at the entrance of a draw- 
ing-room." It suppressed any scruples that a gentleman 
might feel at entering into an alliance founded on injustice 
to the father of his country, by overshadowing his judgment 



Washington's administration. 379 

with clouds of vain incense and visions of future greatness, 
through which Mr. Jefferson's election could not but ap- 
pear as previous and instrumental to his own elevation ; 
and it conformed apparently with that rural seclusion which 
the artless philosopher loved as dearly as he did his friend 
Col. Burr, and was as willing to forsake. 

These advantages of the maneuver were not counter- 
balanced by a single inconvenience. There was not the 
slightest chance of Mr. Madison's superseding him ; for 
besides that he was a man of personal modesty and of com- 
paratively mild ambition, Mr. Jefferson was entitled by pre- 
occupancy to the head of the opposition ; to precedence, 
by superior age, and the high diplomatic and executive 
stations he had filled, to the duties of which Mr. Madison 
was yet a stranger. Had it been in his wish therefore to 
put himself before Mr. Jefferson, it would not have been in 
his power. Mr. Madison's situation and character at the 
time, in short, render it a moral certainty, that Mr. Jeffer- 
son's professing a wish to see his election, was simply an 
expedient to promote his own. 

In tracing his correspondence up to the 19th of June, 
1796, when he wrote the letter in vulgar abuse of Gen. Lee, 
and cruel hicmbug of Gen. Washington, I shall not stop to 
notice those in which he exasperates the zeal of Mr. Giles's 
opposition ; encourages and counsels that of Mr. Madison ; 
hails the appearance of an inconsiderable demagogue in 
Pennsylvania as " an acquisition upon which he congratu- 
lates republicanism ;" caricatures by a most invidious criti- 
cism one of the President's messages to Congress, and by 
lecturing Mr. Rutledge of Carolina, on the debt of public 
service he had left unpaid to the nation by his retirement 
from political life, endeavors to provoke a reciprocation of 
that grateful reproach. 

These I shall pass by, as subordinate stratagems in his 



3 so APPENDIX. 

grand design, at once exposed by and exposing it, in order 
to examine his strictures on the next in succession and im- 
portance of President Washington's measures — the treaty 
of amity, commerce and navigation, concluded with the 
government of Great Britain, on the 19th of November, 
1794, by our envoy Mr. Jay. 

A sketch has already been attempted of our political par- 
ties, from their rise to the period at vs^hich Mr. Jefferson 
took his place at the head of Gen. Washington's cabinet. 
And it was then observed that occasions very soon presented 
themselves for such differences of opinion as were likely to 
be discovered by sects so oppositely constituted. But in 
the nature of our new relations with Great Britain, causes 
of peculiar excitement and discussion were found. 

Washington and the great body of his political friends 
readily passed from real war to genuine peace, in conformity 
with the solemn assurance given to the world in the Decla- 
ration of Independence, that the citizens of the United 
States would thenceforth hold the British nation like the rest 
of mankind, " enemies in war, in peace friends." This 
promise they could well afford to fulfill, having signalized 
both their opposition to England, and love for their own 
country, their impatience of tyranny and devotion to free- 
dom in the painful marches and bloody conflicts of a seven 
years' war. With the return of peace, to the minds of such 
men returned the sentiments belonging to it — justice, 
moderation, amity, good faith, and all those fair dispositions 
that lead to the mutual advantage of nations. 

When, therefore, from the unavoidable delay which 
occurred on our part in executing that article of the treaty 
of peace which stipulated for the payment by our citizens 
of a description of debts due to the subjects of Great 
Britain, that government refused to surrender, in coiiformily 
with coudiLious iu the same treaty, certain military potts uu 



WASHINGTON S ADMINISTRATION. 381 

the southern margin of the great lakes, they used their 
utmost exertions to have our side of the covenant strictly 
performed, in order to secure the right dependent on it. In 
the same temper they endeavored to preserve an exact 
neutrality in the war between France and England, and 
preferred negotiation with both belligerents, as long as it 
could be honorably maintained, to war against either, as 
the means of repairing the actual, and preventing the 
fnture injury, to which our commerce was exposed by their 
collision. 

■ As the opposite party had not expended their animosity in 
the generous trade of war, much of it remained on the con- 
clusion of peace ; and as they had not been able to demon- 
strate their zeal in the Revolution by such bold and patriotic 
evidences as Gen. Washington and his followers had ex- 
hibited, they sought now to display it by an unseasonable 
hostility toward Great Britain. In this spirit they insinu- 
ated that the endeavors of the administration to execute 
faithfully the treaty of peace, and to establish a commercial 
intercourse with England, manifested, with other of their 
measures, a monarchial tendency in their counsels, if not a 
design to replace us under the dominion of the British 
crown To color these imputations they alleged that our 
resistance to the encroachments of France evinced a secret 
partiality for England — inconsistent with the gratitude due 
to her rival, and the sympathy which one republic ought to 
feel for another. 

Those against whom these accusations were directed, did 
not fail, in repelling them, to assert that they proceeded 
from politicians unduly partial to France, dishonorably 
insensible to the rights and dignity of their own country, 
and willing to gratify their lust of power at the expense of 
her character and interest. 

It thus occurred that a habit was engrafted on the public 



382 APPENDIX, 

mind of regarding the measures of government less as 
they affected our own prosperity, than as they seemed 
likely to bear upon one or other of these antagonist 
nations, a habit, which, by the machinations and predomi- 
nance of Mr. Jefferson, among other consequences, en- 
couraged that fond injustice and affectionate inferiority, 
with which, in a more or less insolent shape, we have been 
since regarded by the successive governments of France. 

This being the dispositions of the ins and outs — the one 
determined to condemn any connection with Great Britain 
which did not secure, not only all our rights but all our pre- 
tensions, and not only all that we pretended to, but every 
thing that we wished for — the other compelled to chooso 
between the calamity of a war, and the convenience of the 
best agreement, which, under existing circumstances they 
could negotiate ; it is not surprising that the ratification of 
Jay's treaty, in which the concessions and advantages of the 
contracting powers were pretty equally balanced, gave 
occasion to much discontent and violent censure. 

In inflaming this discontent and exacerbating this cen- 
sure, no one took more pains than Mr. Jefferson. In a 
letter to Mann Page, (Yol. III. p. 314,) declining attend- 
ance at the exhibition of a village academy, he digresses to 
the subject of the treaty, and takes occasion from it to sneer 
most indecently at the President. In a letter to Mr. Madi- 
son on the next page, (21st Sept. 1795,) urging him to 
answer a piece which Hamilton had published in explana- 
tion of the advantages of the treaty, he states his opinion 
of it in the following words — " It certainly is an attempt 
of a party, who find they have lost their majority in one 
branch of the legislature, to make a law by the aid of the 
other branch, and of the Executive, under color of a treaty 
which shall bind up the hands of the adverse branch, from 
ever restraining the commerce of their patron nation." 



JEFFERSON'S LETTER TO MAZZEI. 883 

This objection implies, not that any right of the United 
States had been sacrificed or interest neglected, but that 
the commerce of Great Britain was not to be restrained. 
As to the word euer, the violence of its misapplication can 
be conceived only by reflecting that the treaty, in its princi- 
pal articles, was limited expressly to ten years. 

In the same letter he tells Mr. Madison that a number 
of Hamilton's pieces had been sent to him, with an answer 
by a Mr. Beckley ; and that he gave these, " the poison 
and the antidote, to honest, sound-hearted men of common 
understanding," by way of experiment. Finding that 
Hamilton's pieces, in spite of Beckley's answer, produced 
conviction on the minds of these honest, common-sense 
citizens, he adds with rare simplicity, " I have ceased there- 
fore to give them" — showing that this advocate for the 
diffusion of knowledge, for "leaving reason free to combat 
error of opinion," had no scruple in suppressing arguments 
however clear and convincing, if at variance with his own 
interested views. It does not appear that Mr. Madison 
could be induced to enter the lists in this controversy, 
finding it probably more easy to join Mr. Jefferson in rep- 
robating the treaty, than to oppose Hamilton's logic in its 
defense. 



No. XVII. 



JEFFERSON'S CELEBRATED LETTER TO 
MAZZEL 

The course of Mr. Jefferson's correspondence next leads 
us to his famous letter to Mazzei, which, in a futile attempt 
to explain it, he denominates (Yol. IV. p. 401,) " a pre- 



384 APPENDIX. 

cious theme of federal crimination." It bears date less 
than two months anterior to that in which he assures Gen. 
"Washington of his total abstraction from party politics, 
and reviles Gen. Lee so bitterly for having intimated a 
doubt of the sincerity of this avowal. Being connected 
with a strenuous eflfort in 1797, to mask one of its bearings, 
and with an abstract attempt in 1824, to parry another, it 
extends to two distinct eras, both as it regards Gen. Wash- 
ington and Mr. Jetferson himself. To the former it refers 
both before and after his death, to his envied popularity, 
and his unsullied renown ; to the latter, while intent upon 
the acquisition of power ; and after that had been enjoyed 
and resigned, when covetous of fame. You will therefore 
perceive that the task of detecting its true meaning, (and 
of exposing the objects with which it was written,) if not 
likely to require ability in a writer, will demand of the 
reader patient attention. 

As it appears in his " Writings," this letter, so far as it 
relates to public matters, is in the following words. (Vol. 
III. p. 327.) 

Monticello, April 24th, 1796. 
" My Dear Friend : — The aspect of our politics has 
wonderfully changed since you left us. In place of that 
noble love of liberty and republican government which 
carried us triumphantly through the war, an Anglican, 
monarchical, and aristocratical party has sprung up, whose 
avowed object is to draw over us the substance, as they 
have already done the forms of the British government. 
Tlie main body of our citizens, however, I'eraain true to 
their republican principles ; the whole landed interest is 
re]mblican, and so is a great mass of talents. Against us 
are the executive, the judiciary, two out of three branches 
of the legislature, all the officers of the government, all who 



Jefferson's letter to mazzei. 385 

want to be ofiBcers, all timid men who prefer the calm of 
despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants, 
and Americans trading- on British capitals, speculators, and 
holders in the banks and public funds, a contrivance 
invented for purposes of corruption, and for assimilating 
us in all things to the rotten as well as the sound parts of 
the British model. It would give you a fever were I to 
name to you the apostates who have gone over to these 
heresies, men who were Samsons in the field, and Solomons 
in the council, but who have had their heads shorn by the 
harlot of England. In short, we are likely to preserve the 
liberty we have gained only by unremitting labors and 
perils. But we shall preserve it ; and our mass of weight 
and wealth on the good side is so great as to leave no dan- 
ger that force will ever be attempted against us. We have 
only to awake and snap the Lilliputian cords with which 
they have been entangling us during the first sleep which 
succeeded our labors." 

This letter, or rather this part of it, was translated into 
Italian, and published by Mazzei in a Gazette of Florence. 
In Paris, it was republished in the Moniteur in a French 
version of Mazzei's translation, with editorial remarks 
adapted to its sentiments, tending to show the faithless 
spirit of our government toward France, the strength of the 
Gallican party in the United States, and the justice as well 
as the policy of the hostile measures pursued by the Direct- 
ory toward us. From the Moniteur it was transferred to 
the English papers, after undergoing a retranslation, and 
in this last dress found its way to the United States. Al- 
though it bore no signature, it was immediately imputed to 
Mr. Jefi"erson, a circumstance which occasioned his favoring 
Mr. Madison with the following eager explanation of it. 
(Vol. III. p. 362.) 
33 



386 APPENDIX. 

" Monticello, August 3d, 1191. 
" I scribbled you a line on the 24th ult., it missed of the 
post, and so went by a private hand. I perceive from 
yours by Mr. Bringhurst that you had not received it. In 
fact, it was only an earnest exhortation to come here with 
Monroe, which I still hope you will do. In the meantime 
I enclose you a letter from him, and wish your opinion on 
its principal subject. The variety of other topics the day 
I was with you, kept out of sight the letter to Mazzei im- 
puted to me in the papers, the general substance of which 
is mine, though the diction has been considerably altered 
and varied in the course of its translations from English 
into Italian, from Italian into French, and from French into 
English. I first met with it at Bladensburg, and for a 
moment conceived I must take the field of the public papers. 
I could not disavow it wholly, because the greatest part 
was mine in substance, though not in form. I could not 
avow it as it stood, because the form was not mine, and in 
one place the substance very materially falsified. This, 
then, would render explanations necessary ; nay, it would 
render proofs of the whole necessary, and draw me at 
length into a publication of all (even the secret) transac- 
tions of the cabinet while I was of it ; and embroil me per- 
sonally with every member of the executive, with the 
judiciary, and with others still. I soon decided in my own 
mind to be entirely silent. I consulted with several friends 
at Philadelphia, who every one of them were clearly against 
my avowing or disavowing, and some of them conjured me 
most earnestly to let nothing provoke me to it. I corrected, 
in conversation with them, a substantial misrepresentation 
of the copy published. The original has a sentiment like 
this, (for I have not it before me,) ' they are endeavoring 
to submit us to the substance, as they already have to the 
forms of the British government,' meaning by forms the 



JEFFERSON S LETTER TO MAZZEI. 387 

birth-days, levees, processions to Parliament, inauguration 
pomposities, &c. But the copy published says : ' as they 
have already submitted us to the/wm of the British,' &c. ; 
making me express hostility to the form of our government, 
that is, to the Constitution itself. For this is really the 
difference of the word form, used in the singular or plural, 
in that phrase of the English language. Now it would be 
impossible for me to explain this publicly without bringing 
ou a personal difference between Gen. Washington and 
myself, which nothing before the publication of this letter 
has ever done. It would embroil me, too, with all those 
with whom his character is still popular, that is, with nine- 
tenths of the people of the United States ; and what good 
would be obtained by avowing the letter with the necessary 
explanations ? Very little, indeed, in my opinion, to coun- 
terbalance a good deal of harm. From my silence in this 
instance, it cannot be inferred that I am afraid to own the 
general sentiments of the letter. If I am subject to either 
imputation, it is to that of avowing such sentiments too 
frankly both in private and public, often when there is no 
necessity for it, merely because I disdain every thing like 
duplicity. Still, however, I am open to conviction. Think 
for me on the occasion, and advise me what to do, and con- 
fer with Col. Monroe on the subject. Let me entreat you 
again to come with him ; there are other important things 
to consult upon." 

The explanation here advanced is evidently designed to 
impose ou Mr. Madison, and therefore is naturally at va- 
riance with that subsequently furnished to Mr. "Van Buren 
. — the object of which was to delude him into the belief that 
Gen. Washington had never taken exception to the letter to 
Mazzei, and that assertions to that effect were the false 
effusions "of federal malice." 



388 APPENDIX. 

The design upon Mr. Madison was a double one ; first, 
to reconcile him to the unnianliness of preferring an evasive 
silence, to an open avowal or fair explanation of the letter ; 
second, to conceal from him, if possible, the obvious appli- 
cation of its censure to himself. As this latter application 
had a tendency to wound the delicacy of his self-love, it is 
dexterously covered by the former part of his design, and 
by that stratagem is made to appear as if it were intended 
solely to answer their mutual purpose, of avoiding an open 
rupture with Gen. Washington. In furtherance of this 
scheme, Mr. Madison is assured that in consequence of 
mutilations which successive translations had produced in 
the text of the letter to Mazzei, Mr. Jefferson could not 
disavow it wholly with truth, nor avow it wholly without 
ex))lanations ; which explanations "would embroil him 
personally with every member of the executive, with the 
judiciary, and with others ;" that consequently he decided 
very soon in his own mind to remain perfectly silent ; and 
that certain nameless friends, whom he consulted in Phila- 
delphia, were clear and earnest for his persisting in this 
equivocal silence. Mentioning then, that he had corrected, 
in conversation with these frank and worthy persons, a sub- 
stantial error in the copy, he shuffles down with a sort of 
brazen confusion to the point of the slander which was 
pressing against Mr. Madison's reputation ; and keeping 
that confederate's eyes upturned all the while to the indig- 
nant countenance of Gen. Washington, slips out the follow- 
ing card of deception : — " The original has a sentiment like 
this, (for I have it not before me,) ' they are endeavoring to 
submit us to the substance as they already have to the 
forms of the British government,' meaning by forms, the 
birth-days, levees, processions to Parliament, inauguration 
pomposities, &c. But the copy published says: 'as they 
have already submitted us to the /orm of the British,' &c., 



JEFFERSON'S LETTEE TO MAZZEI. 389 

making me express hostility to the form of our government, 
that is, to the Constitntioa itself. For this is really the 
difference of the word form, in the singular or plural, in 
that phrase of the English language." 

As Mr. Jefferson made this exposition, confessedly ou 
the strength of his memory, and not from a collation of the 
copy with the original, I shall take the liberty of suggesting 
that he was mistaken in point of fact ; that the word used 
in the letter to Mazzei, was form. His handwriting was 
remarkably neat, plain, and correct, as is known to his 
numerous correspondents, and appears by i\\%- facsimile at 
the end of his fourth volume ; and Mazzei, from their inti- 
macy and correspondence, was familiar with it. The 
probability is, that in a letter which this person thought, or 
was induced to consider, of suflBcieut importance to be 
published in the Florence Gazette, he would be careful to 
see that no error was committed in its translation or publi- 
cation ; and it having been accurately printed in Italian, a 
subsequent error of the kind insisted on, was almost 
impossible. For in the French language, as in the Italian, 
the difference between the singular and the plural in nouns 
is marked by a change in the termination of two words, that 
is the article and the noun ; as for example — in Italian la 
forma, singular, is le forme plural ; and in French, la 
forme singular is les formes plural. Whereas in English, 
the change is confined to one word, and consists solely in 
the absence or presence of the s final. Thus, if Mr. Jeffer- 
son had written forms, the care of Mazzei would have 
ensured the appearance in the Florence Gazette, of the 
phrase le forme, which the structure of the French and 
Italian language would have forced the Moniteur to rep- 
resent by les formes; a noun that the English translator 
would of necessity have known to be plural, and would 
have so rendered. From these intrinsic evidences, it is 
33* 



390 APPENDIX. 

liighly improbable, to say the least, that if Mr. Jefferson 
MTote the word in the plural, it should have been altered in 
the series of translations into the singular. 

But considering it in another point of view, if this altera- 
tion did actually happen, as he affirms, " in the course of its 
translations from English into Italian, from Italian into 
French, and from French into English," it only proves that 
the person who made the alteration, considered it, as every 
body else will probably do, immaterial, deeming the two 
phrases form of government, and forms of government, 
equivalent ; and that the use of the one or the other made 
no change whatever in the meaning. Thus a sort of di- 
lemma arises at the threshhold of his explanation, and 
seems to shake its horns at this assertion of Mr. Jefferson, 
making it either erroneous or idle. If the error of version 
be not unlikely, the equivalent construction put upon the 
phrases by the peccant translator, becomes highly probable ; 
and if this construction is considered unnatural, the error 
of translation is scarcely possible. 

But can it be seriously supposed by the most ignorant, 
or by the most learned man, that Mazzei, or any one else in 
Europe or America, could understand by the phrase, /orms 
of the British government, the King's birth-night balls, the 
Queen's levees, processions to Parliament or ceremonies of 
the coronation ? Does Montesquieu, in his analysis, or De 
Lolme, in his description of the English Constitution, allude 
even to these forms ? "Was the mind of Pope, when he 
wrote the oft-repeated line, 

"For forms of government let fools contest," 

inspired by levees, birth-nights, and processions ? After the 
alleged transplantation of these ceremonies in America, did 
they become forms of our government, of a government 



Jefferson's letter to mazzei. 391 

which exists solely in our written Constitution. When Mr. 
Jetferson, on becoming President, announced to Mr. Macon 
the heads of the reformation he proposed to introduce, and 
commenced the list with " Levees are done away,'* 
could the venerable senator from North Cai'olina have un- 
derstood that a certain ybrm of our government was to be 
abolished ? Are the Washington birth-night balls, which 
still anniversarily recur in the towns and villages of the 
United States, forms of the Federal or State governments ? 
Were the weekly levees of Mrs. Madison and Mrs. Monroe 
forms of political or petticoat government ? Or was the 
custom adopted by Gen. Washington of opening each ses- 
sion of Congress with a speech instead of a message, when 
he was attended by a voluntary concourse of his fellow- 
citizens, a form of the British governmerit, " drawn over" 
the people of the United States ? 

The truth is, that as a message is nothing more nor less 
than a written speech, and as the kings of England open 
the sessions of Parliament by commission, more frequently 
than in person, Mr. JefiTerson's custom was of a more regal 
form than Gen. Washington's, was less consistent with the 
frank and open carriage of a republican officer, less respect- 
ful to the legislative bodies, and consequently to the people 
and the States whom they represented. 

On the other hand, the forms of the British government 
have universally Ijcen understood to mean its division into 
legislative, executive, and judiciary departments ; the unity 
of its executive ; the duality of its legislature, and the inde- 
pendence of its judiciary. These forms were imitated with 
more or less exactness, as they appeared conducive to the 
substance of freedom, in the Constitution of the United 
States, as may be seen by reference to the compact itself, 
and to the essays of Mr. Madison expounding it ; and were 



392 APPENDIX. 

unquestionably the subject of Mr. Jefferson's remark, 
whether he used the word in the singular or plural. 

Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to John Dickinson, (Vol. III. 
p. 487,) in reference to the objects of the Revolution, says: 
— " Surely we had in view to obtain a theory and practice 
of good government ; and how any, who seemed so ardent 
in this pursuit, could shamelessly have apostatized, and 
supposed we meant only to put our government into other 
hands, but not other forms, is indeed wonderful." Now 
here this word forms is used in the plural and in connec- 
tion with the word government ; yet it cannot be forced by 
any construction into the meaning of "birth-days, levees or 
processions to Parliament," which Mr, Jefferson assures his 
friend Mr. Madison, it always bore " in that phrase in the 
English language." 

Thus it appears that, if we examine into the effect of the 
various translations of this letter, we are led to believe that 
Mr. Jefferson used the word form in the singular, in oppo- 
sition to substance in the previous member of the sentence ; 
and that, if out of courtesy, we admit his assertion to the 
contrary, we discover that the alteration of the text, which 
he insists on, would make not the least possible difference 
in his meaning. The conclusion therefore is, even from 
these premises, that this eager explanation to Mr. Madison, 
was factitious and fraudulent, intended not so much to con- 
sult as to mislead his judgment, and to prevent his taking 
offense at finding himself classed with the members of the 
" Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical party," which 
had " sprung up" in the United States. For the natural 
import of the language, whether the word form or forms 
be employed, is, that those persons who had drawn over us 
the /brms of the British government, that is the framers of 
our Constitution, had combined into an Anglican, monarchi- 
cal, and aristocratical party, and were trying to draw over 



Jefferson's letter to mazzei. 393 

us also its siihdance, that is, its corruption, its executive 
patronage, its privileged classes, its sinecures and hereditary 
tenure of office. Now, as Mr. Madison's popularity and 
public reputation were founded on his exertions and influ- 
ence in devising i\\Q forms of our government, (not birlh- 
night balls, levees, &c.) and in recommending their adop- 
tion to the people, the inference, that he was implicated in 
the slander entrusted to Mazzei, is irresistible. 

You may ask if this explanation be so shallow and pre- 
posterous, how Mr. JeiBferson could venture to offer, or 
succeed in imposing it on a person of Mr. Madison's 
scholastic and practical acquaintance with our language. 
The answer is that Mr. Madison had been accustomed to be 
deceived by him, and in this case would be willing to be 
imposed on. Mithridates took poison so often, that at last, 
the most deadly and active substances would produce no 
disturbance in his stomach ; and it is easy to comprehend 
how reluctant Mr. Madison would be on the occasion in 
question to doubt the personal friendship or to lose the 
political alhance of Mr. Jefferson. The latter had there- 
fore in his favor the power of habit and the influence of 
self-love ; agents of force enough to bias the strongest un- 
derstanding. Besides, the offensive meaning of the sen- 
tence, was rendered less obvious than it might have been, 
by Mr. Jefferson's declining to enclose the genuine letter, 
though he was then at Monticello, that great mint of pr^ess 
copies, where, as you may remember, one was readily coined 
to appease the apprehended resentment of Col. Burr, and 
where, as we shall presently see, another was struck twenty- 
seven years subsequently, to bewilder the credulity of Mr. 
Van Buren. Instead of sending him a faithful copy of his 
letter, he refers him to one from Mr. Monroe, and persuades 
him to a conference with that gentleman, who as he had 
borne no part in the formation of the Constitution and but 



394 APPENDIX. 

an immaterial one in its adoption, (Yol. II. p. 36Y,) might 
be the more easily employed to decoy Mr. Madison into 
security as to himself, and into apprehension as to the effect 
which an avowal or explanation of the letter would have on 
Mr. Jefferson, and through him on the interests of the 
whole party. 

To mislead Mr. Madison still further, he avers that the 
sentence, by its alleged alteration, would make him " ex- 
press hostility to the form of our government, that is to the 
Constitution itself" — whereas, if Mr. Madison had seen the 
letter itself, he would have perceived that it could produce 
no such effect — for certainly to say that the form of the 
Federal government resembles that of Great Britain — 
which was admitted on all hands to be the best in existence 
before ours was created, and to which it is related by such 
strong and numerous analogies, — cannot be interpreted into 
an expression of hostility to the Constitution of the United 
States, without going to the absurdity of imputing that 
sentiment to the fathers of oar charter. This superfluous 
defense shows that it was the language he concealed from 
Mr. Madison, not that which he repeated to him, — his con- 
science and not his communication, — which on this occasion 
was his accuser. For his letter to Mazzei, as now published, 
does most certainly " express hostility to the Constitution 
itself," as well as to its framers. 

But this chicanery, contemptible as it is, is not the worst 
part of the letter to Mr. Madison. For after admitting the 
letter to Mazzei to be in substance his, Mr. Jefferson ex- 
presses his determination, neither to avow, nor disavow, nor 
explain it, for fear of its bringing on a personal difference 
between himself and Gen. Washington, and embroiling him 
with other distinguished men. He said to Mr. Madison as 
he had said to Mr. Monroe : " I have written a letter to 
Mazzei, of a character to wound the feelings of Gen. Wash- 



Jefferson's lftti:?. to mazzei. 395 

ington and several other gentlemen. Contrary to my 
expectation, it is published in the American newspapers, 
fortunately without my signature, but in substance as I 
wrote it, though with the alteration of one word, which I 
think changes its meaning in one respect, but which neither 
increases nor lessens the personal offense it is likely to give. 
I cannot avow it wholly because of this alteration, nor disa- 
vow it altogether because of its substantial accuracy, nor 
explain its alterations without bringing on a personal 
difference with Gen. Washington, and embroiling me with 
these other eminent persons. I am therefore decided in my 
own mind, neither to avow, nor to disavow, nor to explain 
it ; and by this silence to avoid the personal responsibility 
to which it would subject me, as well as the serious harm 
it would occasion to my own popularity and our mutual 
political plans. I am anxious to get your advice on the 
subject, and I hope that, after consulting with Monroe, you 
will approve, like my honest friends in Philadelphia, this 
prudent and evasive silence." 

Here, if we trust the indications of Mr. Jefferson's cor- 
respondence, are three citizens, who were destined to rise in 
succession to the highest place in the popular affection and 
political power of a great republic — in a government, the 
essential principle of which is virtue, — consulting together 
on a point of conduct upon which no man of honesty can 
possibly doubt, and, as far as appears, finally adopting a 
proceeding which no man of honor can approve. Is it 
possible to believe that Gen. Washington ever could have 
shrunk into such ignominious evasion ? Or can the utmost 
stretch of the imagination conceive him consulting urgently 
and secretly with Gen. Haiuilton and Gen. Lee, upon a 
step, of which the vast departure from manliness and honor, 
no language can describe ? If there exists a being who can 
su[)poso so great an improbability, let him refer to the uu- 



soft APPENDIX. 

disputed fact that arose out of the resignation of Edmund 
Randolph as Secretary of State. That gentleman — "for 
the purpose as he alleged of vindicating his conduct, de- 
manded the sight of a confidential letter which had been 
addressed to him by the President, and which was left in 
the office. His avowed design was to give this, as well as 
some others of the same description, to the public, in order 
to support the allegation, that in consequence of his attach- 
ment to France and liberty, he had fallen a victim to the 
intrigues of a British and aristocratic party." To this 
demand Washington replied — " I have directed that you 
have the inspection of my letter of the 22d of July, agreea- 
bly to your request, and you are at full liberty to publish, 
without reserve, any and every private and confidential 
letter I ever wrote you. Nay more, every word I ever 
uttered to or in your presence from whence you can derive 
any advantage in your vindication." 

No contrast can be stronger than the difference between 
these proceedings — that of Washington displaying a con- 
sciousness of rectitude, a sense of magnanimity, and an 
ardent love of truth. To the admirers of Mr. Jefferson I 
leave the glorious task of portraying the virtues which on 
the occasion he exhibited. Let them reconcile his silence 
with the sentiments of his letter abusing Gen. Lee, his eva- 
sion with honor, his secrecy with truth, either with the 
spirit of an independent man or the duty of a good citizen. 
Let them account for his conduct on any other hypothesis 
than that involving a consciousness of the injustice of his 
ovvu asi»ersions ; a fear of the exposure their avowal would 
" draw over" him personally and politically, in substance as 
well as in form ; and an apprehension that besides this 
formidable array of enemies, it would be attended by the 
rupture of his alliance with Mr. Madison, and the conse- 
quent loss of this valuable auxiliary. For from the iucora- 



Jefferson's letter to mazzet. 397 

patibility between the tenor of his professions to Gen. 
"Washington, and his communications to Mr. Madison, it 
was morally impossible that an explanation, which would 
disarm Gen. Washington, should not offend Mr. Madison. 
"While to a private one, therefore, he was averse, a public 
one he actually dreaded. 

There is one sentence which brings us to the ze7'o of 
pusillanimity — to a point of prevarication, at which Mr. 
Jefferson's moral sense seems to have undergone congelation, 
and to have been attended by an instinctive assurance that 
a similar catastrophe had befallen his friends — a degree in 
the descending scale of dishonor at which shame and fear 
are actually transmuted into vanity and impudence. After 
this elaborate equivocation and dissembling, he exclaims : 
"From my silence in this instance it cannot be inferred that 
I am afraid to own the general sentiments of the letter. If 
I am subject to either imputation, it is to that of avowing 
such sentiments too frankly, both in private and public, 
often when there is no necessity for it, merely because I 
disdain every thing like duplicity" ! ! And to be convinced 
that his love of truth was as sincere as his " disdain of 
every thing like duplicity" you have only to remember 
that he assured Gen. Washington in his letter abusing Gen. 
Lee — which was written in the interval between the date 
of the letter to Mazzei and of this to Mr. Madison, " of his 
total abstraction from party politics" — that " political 
conversations he really disliked, and therefore avoided when 
he could, without affectation — or unless they were urged by 
others." 

Tliere yet remain to be considered in this explanation to 
Mr. Madison, two expressions, which will be found singu- 
larly significant. The first occurs in the following sentence 
— "Now it would be impossible for me to explain this 
publicly, without bringing on a personal difference between 
34 



398 APPENDIX. 

Gen. Washington and myself, which iiothing before the 
publication of this letter has ever done." Does not the 
conclusion of this sentence contain of itself a complete jus- 
tification of Gen. Lee, out of Mr. Jefferson's own mouth ? 
What does it signify, but that although he was conscious 
of having, before this letter to Mazzei was published, given 
abundant cause to justify the personal resentment of Gen. 
Washington, it had as yet never been excited ? What is it 
but telling Mr. Madison, that notwithstanding the many 
injurious and disparaging remarks, the numerous misrepre- 
sentations and calumnies in which he had ventured to 
indulge, in his correspondence and conversations with him 
and other " political friends and connections," he had 
hitherto managed to avoid a personal difference with Gen. 
Washington ? If this be not the meaning of his words, they 
are destitute of meaning. 

In the succeeding remark : — " It would embroil me too 
with all those with whom his character is still popular, that 
is with nine-tenths of the people of the United States" — 
tlie adverb still, is as expressive as any single word can be. 
The "tandem liber equus" of Yirgil, so much celebrated 
by commentators, yields to it in significancy. It unclasps 
a volume of our national history which has as yet been very 
little read — it developes the spirit of the volumuious cor- 
respondence I have been examining, and casts a detecting 
light on the most obscure and invidious calumnies in Mr. 
Jefferson's innumerable letters to Messrs. Madison and 
Monroe. It now confesses to the world what it was then 
intended to hint to these two chosen confederates, that in 
spite of all his efforts to destroy the popularity of Gen. 
Washington, there was but too good reasons to fear that a 
great majority of the people of the United States remained 
still devoted to him. 

The truth is, however, that these efforts were not alto- 



Jefferson's letter to mazzei. 399 

getlier unsuccessful. Gen. Washington did retire from 
office, and descended to his grave with a name which, 
though unsullied, was dimmed for a season by the slanders 
thus hatched by Mr. Jefferson, and thus confided to his 
compeers, and with a heart that was not agonized, only 
because the ethereal temper of virtue is impassive to the 
shafts of malice. This disinterested and devoted patriot 
was publicly threatened with impeachment, and reduced to 
the necessity of vindicating himself against an open charge 
of pecuniary corruption. And after laying down his office, 
he was condemned to learn that a leading member of Con- 
gress from his own State, had reproached him in debate 
with a want of wisdom and firmness, and rejoiced at his re- 
tirement as an event of national advantage. 

In the chicanery, slander, and ingratitude disclosed by 
the examination of this part of Mr. Jefferson's career, was 
laid the foundation of that ascendancy which he gained iu 
the United States, and transmitted to his successors, 
Messrs. Madison and Monroe, — an ascendancy that has 
been ascribed to patriotism, wisdom and justice, by a fiction 
as gross in its nature, and as pardonable in its prevalence, 
as that which induced the Romans to believe that they 
drew their lineage from the gods. 

The surviving partisans of Mr. Jefferson will not be 
proud of this political pedigree ; but as it is traced dis- 
tinctly through his own "Writings," has every link of its 
chain riveted by his own authority, it will require no little 
address to escape from its incumbrance. Mr. Madison, 
indeed, from the supereminence of his reputation and 
talents, and the strict account that history is likely to take 
of his conduct, may feel himself called on by the publica- 
tion of Mr. Jefferson's side of their correspondence to 
declare whether, or iu what degree, he conspired iu those 



400 APPENDIX. 

schemes which projected the shadow of a " dim eclipse" 
between the glory of Washington and the admiration 
of his fellow-citizens ; and which, while the lustre of his 
name shone unclouded in other lands, caused it, for a 
space, to shed but pale and struggling beams upon his 
native country. 



THE END. 



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The Dame alone of the author is a sufficient guaranty to Um 



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LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF REAL LIFE, 

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TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM, AND WHAT I 

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I* 



6 

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THE FIRESIDE ANGEL. 64 pages, 32mo, with 

an engraving. Bound in muslin, gilt edges. 25 cents. 



MORAL TALES FOR THE PEOPLE 



VOL. I. 



^^1 mM^EmmWm 

STORY FOR MY YOUNG COUNTRYWOMEN 



VOL. II. 

wmm WEWM^ 

A STORY FOR MY YOUNG COUNTRYWOMEN. 

VOL. III. 

^mm m&wmmmm 

h STORY FOR MY YOUNG COUNTRYWOMEN, 



VOL. IV. 



OR, MARRIAGE AND CELIBACY CONTRASTED. 

IN A SEEIES OF DOMESTIC PICTURES. 



8 

VOL. V. 

A STORY OF MARRiED LIFE. 

VOL. VI. 

OR, BEFORE AND AFTER MARRIAGE. 

VOL. VII. 

OR, THE RUNAWAY MATCH. 
OR, THE iNDfSGRETlON. 

VOL. VIII. 

AN AMERICAN STORY OF REAL LIFE. 



I 



,\^' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 838 449 



